Georg Berding, Florian Wilke, Thilo Rode, Cathleen Haense, Gert Joseph, Geerd J Meyer, Martin Mamach, Minoo Lenarz, Lilli Geworski, Frank M Bengel, Thomas Lenarz, Hubert H Lim
Considerable progress has been made in the treatment of hearing loss with auditory implants. However, there are still many implanted patients that experience hearing deficiencies, such as limited speech understanding or vanishing perception with continuous stimulation (i.e., abnormal loudness adaptation). The present study aims to identify specific patterns of cerebral cortex activity involved with such deficiencies. We performed O-15-water positron emission tomography (PET) in patients implanted with electrodes within the cochlea, brainstem, or midbrain to investigate the pattern of cortical activation in response to speech or continuous multi-tone stimuli directly inputted into the implant processor that then delivered electrical patterns through those electrodes...
2015: PloS One