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Cochlear implantation at a very early age – some psycholinguistic and neurocognitive aspects
Poster Session D, Thursday, October 1, 4:30 - 6:30 pm, Wangari Maathai
Livia Ivaskó1, Roland Nagy2, Bálint Posta2, Balázs Dimák2, Éva Perényi-Csáthi2, Ádám Perényi2, János András Jarabin2, László Csanády2, Zsófia Bere2, László Rovó2; 1University of Szeged, Department of General Linguistics, Department of Oto- Rhino- Laryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, 2University of Szeged, Department of Oto- Rhino- Laryngology and Head and Neck Surgery
Different previous studies on spoken language development of children with mild, sever or profound hearing loss have shown great variability in children’s performance depending on their use of hearing aids and their sociocognitive background. This paper aims to focus on the adventages on early cochlear implantation of those children, who had been diagnosed and implanted under the age of one. As it is suggested in the guidelines in several countries „earliest is the best”, because of the features of human neurodevelopment. Maturation of the central auditory pathways depend on auditory input, and auditory deprivation can cause widespread degeneration in the central auditory system, so people with this kind of capability loss would not reach vocal stimuli. Auditory deprivation can also affect the ability to process information beyond the auditory system including linguistic and higher order neurocognitive functioning. As Naik et al. (2021) claimed, several studies have supported the hypothesis that there is a critical or sensitive period during which the auditory system is most responsive to stimulation. It is well accepted that a time-dependent series of functions occurs in the developing auditory system based on responsive adaptations to external stimuli. (Ruben, 1997; Sharma et al, 2015, Naik et al,, 2021). Based on the conception of the connectome model (Kral et al, 2016) and their recent studies (Kral et al, 2019, Kral et al, 2025) on the neuronal development of hearing and language, this presentation also aims to emphasize the role of critical/sensitive periods in language acquisition. We would like to present a detailed longitudinal study of a young Hungarian child with bilateral cochlear implantation at the age of seven months, how an optimal candidate with supportive social background can benefit from a well established personalized therapy. He is the first reported Hungarian patient with bilateral cochlear implant at this age. References Kral A, Dorman MF, Wilson BS. Neuronal development of hearing and language: cochlear implants and critical periods. Annu Rev Neurosci. 2019;42(1):47-65. Kral A, Kronenberger WG, Pisoni DB, O'Donoghue GM. Neurocognitive factors in sensory restoration of early deafness: a connectome model. Lancet Neurol. 2016;15(6):610-621. Kral, A., Dorman, M.F., & Wilson, B.S. (2019). Neuronal Development of Hearing and Language: Cochlear Implants and Critical Periods. Annual review of neuroscience. Kral, A., Kishon-Rabin, L., O'Donoghue, G., & Romeo, R.R. (2025). Sensorimotor contingencies in congenital hearing loss: The critical first nine months. Hearing research, 467, 109401 . Yoshinaga-Itano, C., Sedey, A. L., Wiggin, M., Mason, C. A. (2018). Language outcomes improved through early hearing detection and earlier cochlear implantation. Otol Neurotol, 39, 1256–1263. Naik AN, Varadarajan VV, Malhotra PS. Early pediatric Cochlear implantation: An update. Laryngoscope Investig Otolaryngol. 2021 May 12;6(3):512-521. Ruben RJ. A time frame of critical/sensitive periods of language development. Acta Otolaryngol. 1997;117(2):202-205. Sharma A, Campbell J, Cardon G. Developmental and cross-modal plasticity in deafness: evidence from the P1 and N1 event related potentials in cochlear implanted children. Int J Psychophysiol. 2015; 95(2):135-144.
Topic Areas: Disorders: Developmental, Language Development/Acquisition