Atypical white-matter microstructure in congenitally deaf adults: A region of interest and tractography study using diffusion-tensor imaging.

ABSTRACT: Considerable research documents the cross-modal reorganization of auditory cortices as a consequence of congenital deafness, with remapped functions that include visual and somatosensory processing of both linguistic and nonlinguistic information. Structural changes accompany this cross-modal neuroplasticity, but precisely which specific structural changes accompany congenital and early deafness and whether there are group differences in hemispheric asymmetries remain to be established. Here, we used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to examine microstructural white matter changes accompanying cross-modal reorganization in 23 deaf adults who were genetically, profoundly, and congenitally deaf, having learned sign language from infancy with 26 hearing controls who participated in our previous

SUBMITTER: Karns CM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11668359 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature