Auditory experience modulates frontoparietal theta activity serving fluid intelligence

Authors

Elizabeth Heinrichs-Graham, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Creighton University, University of Nebraska Medical Center
Elizabeth A. Walker, University of Iowa
Brittany K. Taylor, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Creighton University, University of Nebraska Medical Center
Sophia C. Menting, University of Nebraska Medical Center, BTNRH

Date of this Version

4-5-2022

Citation

E. Heinrichs-Graham et al. BRAIN COMMUNICATIONS 2022. https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcac093

Comments

Open Access.

Abstract

Children who are hard of hearing are at risk for developmental language and academic delays compared with children with normal hearing. Some work suggests that high-order cognitive function, including fluid intelligence, may relate to language and academic outcomes in children with hearing loss, but findings in these studies have been mixed and to date, there have been no studies of the wholebrain neural dynamics serving fluid intelligence in the context of hearing loss. To this end, this study sought to identify the impact of hearing loss and subsequent hearing aid use on the neural dynamics serving abstract reasoning in children who are hard of hearing relative to children with normal hearing using magnetoencephalography. We found significant elevations in occipital and parietal theta activity during early stimulus evaluation in children who are hard of hearing relative to normal-hearing peers. In addition, we found that greater hearing aid use was significantly related to reduced activity throughout the fronto-parietal network. Notably, there were no differences in alpha dynamics between groups during later-stage processing nor did alpha activity correlate with hearing aid use. These cross-sectional data suggest that differences in auditory experience lead to widespread alterations in the neural dynamics serving initial stimulus processing in fluid intelligence in children.