Vincent J. Schmithorst1, Scott K. Holland2, Robert W. Keith3
1Radiology, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, Pittsburgh, PA, United States; 2Children's Hospital, Pediatric Neuroimaging Research Consortium, Cincinnati, OH, United States; 3Audiology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, United States
Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) were performed on normal-hearing children and children with unilateral sensorineural hearing loss (USNHL). USNHL was predicted by reduced mean diffusivity (MD) in the sublenticular part of the left internal capsule, and the reduced MD was the result of decreased radial diffusivity (RD). Our results likely indicate activity-dependent changes in myelination in children with USNHL in the final part of the auditory pathway in the left hemisphere. The decreased MD did not correlate with higher-order auditory performance, indicating a likely cortical etiology for these deficits in children with USNHL.
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