The impact of mild-to-severe hearing loss on the neural dynamics serving verbal working memory processing in children

Elizabeth Heinrichs-Graham; Elizabeth A Walker; Jacob A Eastman; Michaela R Frenzel; Timothy R Joe; Ryan W McCreery

doi:10.1016/j.nicl.2021.102647

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The impact of mild-to-severe hearing loss on the neural dynamics serving verbal working memory processing in children

Journal article

Open access

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The impact of mild-to-severe hearing loss on the neural dynamics serving verbal working memory processing in children

Elizabeth Heinrichs-Graham, Elizabeth A Walker, Jacob A Eastman, Michaela R Frenzel, Timothy R Joe and Ryan W McCreery

NeuroImage clinical, Vol.30, pp.102647-102647

03/29/2021

DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2021.102647

PMCID: PMC8056458

PMID: 33838545

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Abstract

Children with hearing loss (CHL) exhibit delays in language function relative to children with normal hearing (CNH). However, evidence on whether these delays extend into other cognitive domains such as working memory is mixed, with some studies showing decrements in CHL and others showing CHL performing at the level of CNH. Despite the growing literature investigating the impact of hearing loss on cognitive and language development, studies of the neural dynamics that underlie these cognitive processes are notably absent. This study sought to identify the oscillatory neural responses serving verbal working memory processing in CHL compared to CNH. To this end, participants with and without hearing loss performed a verbal working memory task during magnetoencephalography. Neural oscillatory responses associated with working memory encoding and maintenance were imaged separately, and these responses were statistically evaluated between CHL and CNH. While CHL performed as well on the task as CNH, CHL exhibited significantly elevated alpha-beta activity in the right frontal and precentral cortices during encoding relative to CNH. In contrast, CHL showed elevated alpha maintenance-related activity in the right precentral and parieto-occipital cortices. Crucially, right superior frontal encoding activity and right parieto-occipital maintenance activity correlated with language ability across groups. These data suggest that CHL may utilize compensatory right-hemispheric activity to achieve verbal working memory function at the level of CNH. Neural behavior in these regions may impact language function during crucial developmental ages.

Oscillations

Hearing aids

Cognition

Audiology

Neurophysiology

Details

Title: Subtitle: The impact of mild-to-severe hearing loss on the neural dynamics serving verbal working memory processing in children
Creators: Elizabeth Heinrichs-Graham - University of Nebraska Medical Center
Elizabeth A Walker - University of Iowa
Jacob A Eastman - University of Nebraska Medical Center
Michaela R Frenzel - University of Nebraska Medical Center
Timothy R Joe - University of Nebraska Medical Center
Ryan W McCreery - Audibility, Perception, and Cognition Laboratory, BTNRH, Omaha, NE, USA.
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: NeuroImage clinical, Vol.30, pp.102647-102647
DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2021.102647
PMID: 33838545
PMCID: PMC8056458
NLM abbreviation: Neuroimage Clin
ISSN: 2213-1582
eISSN: 2213-1582
Grant note: DOI: 10.13039/100000055, name: NIDCD, award: R01-DC013591; DOI: 10.13039/100000002, name: National Institutes of Health, award: R01-DC013591
Language: English
Date published: 03/29/2021
Academic Unit: Communication Sciences and Disorders; Otolaryngology
Record Identifier: 9984258738502771

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