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Scientific Oral Presentation

Otology/Neurotology

Auditory Cortical Reorganisation Following Cochlear Implantation in Children with Pre-lingual Hearing Loss: An Fnirs Study

Monday, October 19, 2026
1:54 PM - 2:00 PM PT
Location: 511AC
Disclosure(s):
Kranti Bhavana, MS, DNB:

faculty for this accredited education activity has no relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

Introduction: This study aims to assess the effects of CI on auditory cortical reorganization in prelingually hearing loss children using fNIRS, thereby elucidating the neural correlates of auditory recovery and informing clinical strategies for optimal rehabilitation.
Functional near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) enables non-invasive auditory cortical mapping an can be used for monitoring progress.

Methods: A cohort of 12 prelingually hearing-impaired children of including preop, 1 year post op CI and 2 year post op CI were enrolled between June 2024 and Dec 2024 after an IEC approval (AIIMS/Pat/IEC/2024/7). fNIRS was employed to measure the auditory cortical activation for various stimuli visual, puretone of 250 Hz , 1kHz, 6KHZ, and speech , both pre- and post-implantation . Data analysis focused on changes in activation intensity and spatial distribution within primary auditory cortices, using multivariate analysis the Kruskal Wallis test to identify significant differences among the groups

Results: Preliminary findings indicate a marked increase in auditory cortical activation post-implantation groups. Enhanced activation correlated strongly with improved behavioural auditory perception scores- MAIS scores.
The comparison of Bilateral TotalHb, Bilateral OxyHb in Auditory cortex for 250Hz stimulus, Right OxyHb, Bilateral TotalHb in Auditory cortex to 1KHz, Bilateral TotalHb and Bilateral OxyHb in auditory cortex for speech stimulus by Kruskal Wallis test shows a statistically significant difference at p < 0.05 level.
There was also a noticeable increase in auditory cortex stimulation to visual stimulus without sound stimulus in the immediate post op period which had decreased in 2 years post speech therapy children.

Conclusions: This study is one among the few to use fNIRS with CI outcome assessment in prelingual children to assess responses of auditory cortices to various stimuli offering insights into neuroplasticity following rehabilitation.
This underscores the efficacy of CI in promoting auditory cortical reorganisation, highlighting fNIRS as a valuable tool for monitoring progress.