• Uttam Kumar, Amit Keshri, and Mrutyunjaya Mishra.
• Centre of Bio-Medical Research, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences Campus, Lucknow, India.
• J Neuroimaging. 2021 Nov 1; 31 (6): 1135-1145.

Background And PurposeEarly hearing loss causes several changes in the brain structure and function at multiple levels; these changes can be observed through neuroimaging. These changes are directly associated with sensory loss (hearing) and the acquisition of alternative communication strategies. Such plasticity changes in the brain might establish a different connectivity pattern with resting-state networks (RSNs) and other brain regions. We performed resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) to evaluate these intrinsic modifications.MethodsWe used two methods to characterize the functional connectivity (FC) of RSN components in 20 prelingual deaf adults and 20 demographic-matched hearing adults. rsfMRI data were analyzed using independent component analysis (ICA) and region-of-interest seed-to-voxel correlation analysis.ResultsIn ICA, we identified altered FC of RSNs in the deaf group. RSNs with altered FC were observed in higher visual, auditory, default mode, salience, and sensorimotor networks. The findings of seed-to-voxel correlation analysis suggested increased temporal coherence with other neural networks in the deaf group compared with the hearing control group.ConclusionThese findings suggest a highly diverse resting-state connectivity pattern in prelingual deaf adults resulting from compensatory cross-modal plasticity that includes both auditory and nonauditory regions.© 2021 American Society of Neuroimaging.

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