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Functional reorganization of the human auditory pathways following hemispherectomy: an fMRI demonstration.
Neuropsychologia. 2008 Oct; 46(12):2936-42
Sophie Scott, University College London, UK. F1000 Neurological Disorders
18 Aug 2008 | New Finding
This is a very interesting use of functional (f)MRI to show reorganization of the ascending auditory pathway following hemispherectomy.
The authors studied two patients who underwent hemispherectomy in childhood and a group of neurologically intact controls. They used fMRI to investigate the cortical response to monoaural and binaural auditory stimuli. Unlike the controls, the two patients showed greater cortical responses in the right hemisphere to ipsilaterally presented sounds and a decreased response to contralaterally presented sounds. The authors are clear that the exact nature of this reorganization will take further studies to determine.
It is the nature of this sort of study that only a small number of hemispherectomized patients can be studied, and the authors stress that the nature of the reorganization must vary with the type and extent of brain damage seen. It will be interesting to see how these findings can be extended in further studies.
Competing interests: No potential interests relevant to this article were reported.
Scott S: "This is a very interesting use of functional (f)MRI to show reorganization of the..." Evaluation of: [Paiement P et al. Functional reorganization of the human auditory pathways following hemispherectomy: an fMRI demonstration. Neuropsychologia. 2008 Oct; 46(12):2936-42; doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.06.009]. Faculty of 1000, 18 Aug 2008. F1000.com/1120025#eval576147
Short form
Scott S: 2008. F1000.com/1120025#eval576147
Faculty of 1000 evaluations, dissents and comments for [Paiement P et al. Functional reorganization of the human auditory pathways following hemispherectomy: an fMRI demonstration. Neuropsychologia. 2008 Oct; 46(12):2936-42; doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.06.009]. Faculty of 1000, 18 Aug 2008. F1000.com/1120025
Short form
Faculty of 1000: 2008. F1000.com/1120025
The present study investigated the functional reorganization of ipsilateral and contralateral auditory pathways in hemispherectomized subjects. Functional reorganization was assessed using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and stimulation with complex sounds presented binaurally and monaurally. For neurologically intact control subjects, results showed that binaural stimulations evoked balanced activity in both hemispheres while monaural stimulations induced strong contralateral activity and weak ipsilateral activity. The results obtained from hemispherectomized subjects were substantially different from those obtained from control subjects. Specifically, activity in the intact hemisphere showed a significant decrease in response to contralateral stimulation but, concomitantly, an increase in response to ipsilateral stimulation. The present findings suggest that a substantial functional reorganization takes place in the auditory pathways following an early hemispherectomy. The exact nature of this functional reorganization remains to be specified.
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.06.009
PMID: 18602934
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