Abstract
Background
Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a viable non-invasive technique for functional neuroimaging in the cochlear implant (CI) population; however, the effects of acoustic stimulus features on the fNIRS signal have not been thoroughly examined. This study examined the effect of stimulus level on fNIRS responses in adults with normal hearing or bilateral CIs. We hypothesized that fNIRS responses would correlate with both stimulus level and subjective loudness ratings, but that the correlation would be weaker with CIs due to the compression of acoustic input to electric output.
Methods
Thirteen adults with bilateral CIs and 16 with normal hearing (NH) completed the study. Signal-correlated noise, a speech-shaped noise modulated by the temporal envelope of speech stimuli, was used to determine the effect of stimulus level in an unintelligible speech-like stimulus between the range of soft to loud speech. Cortical activity in the left hemisphere was recorded.
Results
Results indicated a positive correlation of cortical activation in the left superior temporal gyrus with stimulus level in both NH and CI listeners with an additional correlation between cortical activity and perceived loudness for the CI group. The results are consistent with the literature and our hypothesis.
Conclusions
These results support the potential of fNIRS to examine auditory stimulus level effects at a group level and the importance of controlling for stimulus level and loudness in speech recognition studies. Further research is needed to better understand cortical activation patterns for speech recognition as a function of both stimulus presentation level and perceived loudness.
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Data Availability
The datasets generated during and analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We want to thank Dr. Daniel Ashmead for statistical and design support.
Funding
This research was funded by the National Center for Research Resources, Grant UL1 RR024975-01 and by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, R01 DC009404. National Center for Research Resources, UL1 RR024975-01, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, R01 DC009404.
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SWS designed and performed experiments, analyzed data and wrote the first draft; RHG, MTW, and GCS directed experimental design; BPR, IB, AD, EL and AKCL provided imaging analysis and direction; SWS, RHG, GCS, BPR, EL and AKCL discussed the results and implications and commented on the manuscript at all stages.
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Appendices
Appendix
Appendix 1 HbO Data and Analyses
Sound > Silence
As with HbR data, only group data will be presented. Figure 6 demonstrates similar activation areas in HbO data as are seen in HbR data above in Fig. 3 for sound (including all four sound levels) in the LME model. However, no channels reached significance in any group for the HbO data.
The LME model results (z-scores) for the sound vs. silence contrast for HbO data. After FDR correction, no channels were significantly activated to sound for the any group in the LME model
Linear Effect of Level
The activation maps for the linear effect of stimulus level in HbO are shown in Fig. 7. The areas of activation is similar to that found in Fig. 4 for HbR data. The HbO activation, however, was relatively more pronounced in the prefrontal cortex than HbR activation, and relatively less concentrated in posterior temporal cortex. Two channels, one in the frontal cortex and one near the STG, had a significant positive effect of stimulus level in the LME model for the two groups combined. For the CI group, two channels in the frontal cortex reached significance in the LME model. No channels reached significance in the NH group LME model.
LME model results (z-scores) for the linear correlation of activation with stimulus level for HbO data. After FDR correction, two channels were significantly correlated with level when combining groups and two channels for the CI group, but no significant channels were found for the NH group
The specific brain regions covered by the optode array and being recorded by the channels are shown in Table 3. These brain regions were estimated using the fOLD toolbox (Zimeo Morais et al. 2018) from https://github.com/nirx/fOLD-public. Only brain regions covered by at least one channel with significant activation for HbO data are included in the table.
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Sheffield, S.W., Larson, E., Butera, I.M. et al. Sound Level Changes the Auditory Cortical Activation Detected with Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy. Brain Topogr 36, 686–697 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10548-023-00981-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10548-023-00981-w