POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY OF AUDITORY SENSATION IN DEAF PATIENTS AND PATIENTS WITH COCHLEAR IMPLANTS

The present study investigated the function of the auditory cortices i n severely hearing-impaired or deaf patients and cochlear implant pati ents before and after auditory stimulation. Positron emission computed tomography (PET), which can detect brain activity by providing quanti tative measurements of the metabolic rates of oxygen and glucose, was used. In patients with residual hearing, the activity of the auditory cortex measured by PET was almost normal. Among the totally deaf patie nts, the longer the duration of deafness, the lower the brain activity in the auditory cortex measured by PET. Patients who had been deaf fo r a long period showed remarkably reduced metabolic rates in the audit ory cortices. However, following implantation of the cochlear device, the metabolic activity returned to near-normal levels. These findings suggest that activation of the speech comprehension mechanism of the h igher brain system can be initiated by sound signals from the implant devices.