Early deafness leads to re-shaping of functional connectivity beyond the auditory cortex.

ABSTRACT: Early sensory deprivation, such as deafness, shapes brain development in multiple ways. Deprived auditory areas become engaged in the processing of stimuli from the remaining modalities and in high-level cognitive tasks. Yet, structural and functional changes were also observed in non-deprived brain areas, which may suggest the whole-brain network changes in deaf individuals. To explore this possibility, we compared the resting-state functional network organization of the brain in early deaf adults and hearing controls and examined global network segregation and integration. Relative to hearing controls, deaf adults exhibited decreased network segregation and an altered modular structure. In the deaf, regions of the salience network were coupled with the fronto-parietal network, while in t

SUBMITTER: Bonna K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8286229 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature