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. 2024 Feb;131(1):74-105.
doi: 10.1177/00315125231213167. Epub 2023 Nov 17.

Motor Processing in Children With Cochlear Implants as Assessed by Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

Razieh Alemi  1 , Jace Wolfe  2 , Sara Neumann  3 , Jacy Manning  3 , Lindsay Hanna  3 , Will Towler  3 , Caleb Wilson  4 , Alexander Bien  4 , Sharon Miller  5 , Erin Schafer  5 , Jessica Gemignani  6 , Nabin Koirala  7 , Vincent L Gracco  7 , Mickael Deroche  1
Affiliations

Motor Processing in Children With Cochlear Implants as Assessed by Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

Razieh Alemi et al. Percept Mot Skills. 2024 Feb.

Abstract

Auditory-motor and visual-motor networks are often coupled in daily activities, such as when listening to music and dancing; but these networks are known to be highly malleable as a function of sensory input. Thus, congenital deafness may modify neural activities within the connections between the motor, auditory, and visual cortices. Here, we investigated whether the cortical responses of children with cochlear implants (CI) to a simple and repetitive motor task would differ from that of children with typical hearing (TH) and we sought to understand whether this response related to their language development. Participants were 75 school-aged children, including 50 with CI (with varying language abilities) and 25 controls with TH. We used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to record cortical responses over the whole brain, as children squeezed the back triggers of a joystick that vibrated or not with the squeeze. Motor cortex activity was reflected by an increase in oxygenated hemoglobin concentration (HbO) and a decrease in deoxygenated hemoglobin concentration (HbR) in all children, irrespective of their hearing status. Unexpectedly, the visual cortex (supposedly an irrelevant region) was deactivated in this task, particularly for children with CI who had good language skills when compared to those with CI who had language delays. Presence or absence of vibrotactile feedback made no difference in cortical activation. These findings support the potential of fNIRS to examine cognitive functions related to language in children with CI.

Keywords: auditory-motor coupling; cochlear implant; cortical activity changes; visuo-motor coupling.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Experimental Protocol Depicting a Child Squeezing the Joystick When Instructed by a Monitor to Do So, in a 15-s Block-Design. Note. No sound was presented in this study, and all children with CIs turned their devices off. CI: Cochlear Implant.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
fNIRS Montage with 39 Sources (red) and 31 Detectors (Blue) Making Up a Total of 122 Channels. Note. Only channels targeting 4 ROIs (Motor, Somatosensory, Visual, and Auditory Cortices) are shown. ROI: Region of Interest.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Three-Dimensional Map of t-Statistic Values on the Beta Weights Obtained for the Effect of the Squeeze versus Rest Periods in Each Group, for Oxygenated Hemoglobin (Top) and Deoxygenated Hemoglobin (Bottom). Note. CI & LL: Cochlear Implant and Low Language, CI & TL: Cochlear Implant and Typical Language, TH: Typical Hearing.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Group-Averaged Event-Related Changes in Oxygenated and Deoxygenated Hemoglobin (HbO & HbR, respectively) Occurring in the Motor Cortex (Most Left), Somatosensory Cortex (Middle Left), Superior Temporal Cortices Bilaterally (Middle Right), and Visual Cortex (Most Right). Note. CI & LL: Cochlear Implant and Low Language, CI & TL: Cochlear Implant and Typical Language, TH: Typical Hearing.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Individual Beta Weights (HbDiff) Obtained in the Motor Cortex (Most Left), Somatosensory Cortex (Middle Left), Superior Temporal Cortices Bilaterally (Middle Right), and Visual Cortex (Most Right), as a Function of the Child’s Chronological Age (Top) and Their Language Skills (Bottom). Note. HbDiff: Hemoglobin difference (i.e., HbO-HbR), CI & LL: Cochlear Implant and Low Language, CI & TL: Cochlear Implant and Typical Language, TH: Typical Hearing.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Individual Beta Weights (HbDiff) Obtained in the Motor Cortex versus Somatosensory (left) or Visual (right) Cortex. Note. HbDiff: Hemoglobin difference (i.e., HbO-HbR), CI & LL: Cochlear Implant and Low Language, CI & TL: Cochlear Implant and Typical Language, TH: Typical Hearing.
Figure 7.
Figure 7.
Same as Figure 4 in motor and somatosensory cortex but split by the two conditions where the joystick vibrated or not, as the child squeezed on the back triggers. Note. CI & LL: Cochlear implant and low language, CI & TL: Cochlear implant and typical Language, TH: Typical hearing, HbO: Oxygenated hemoglobin, HbR: Deoxygenated hemoglobin.
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