Functional MRI Study of Auditory Cortex in Sensorineural Hearing Loss Patients

BOLD-fMRI was used to observe the volume and intensity of the activated auditory cortex evoked by pure tone stimuli in sensorineural hearing loss patients, to analyze the volume and intensity of two hemispheres of activated auditory cortex quantitatively, and to compare the difference of auditory cortex between left and right hemispheres. Finally, the characteristic of the auditory cortex of sensorineural hearing loss patients was discussed. When normal ears of sensorneural hearing loss patients were stimulated by pure tone, the contralateral hemisphere predominance disappeared. These results seemed to show a plasticity of auditory cortex of monaural deaf patient.