6533b827fe1ef96bd1286d6c

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Cortical neuroplasticity in children after early cochlear implantation

subject

description

Hearing is crucial to learn and use language. Loss of hearing in children affects the development of speech, language and cognitive abilities, and severely impairs social capabilities. Thus, efforts to restore auditory perception are determinative and research should be focused on factors likely to bring about the best prognosis. Numerous experimental observations demonstrate that there is a sensitive or critical period for cochlear implantation. Implantations performed in prelingually deaf children in this period are associated with better results in terms of speech recognition and language acquisition. This is the time period in which brain plasticity shows its highest level of development. There is increasing interest in establishing the optimum age to implant congenitally deaf children so that the maximum potential of neuroplasticity is exploited. Different authors have established different limits; however, all of them agree that the best time is in the first years of life, between two and four years...