%0 Journal Article
%T Congenital Unilateral Deafness Affects Cerebral Organization of Reading
%A Roberta Adorni
%A Mirella Manfredi
%A Alice Mado Proverbio
%J Brain Sciences
%D 2013
%I MDPI AG
%R 10.3390/brainsci3020908
%X It is known that early sensory deprivation modifies brain functional structure and connectivity. The aim of the present study was to investigate the neuro-functional organization of reading in a patient with profound congenital unilateral deafness. Using event-related potentials ( ERPs), we compared cortical networks supporting the processing of written words in patient RA (completely deaf in the right ear since birth) and in a group of control volunteers. We found that congenital unilateral hearing deprivation modifies neural mechanisms of word reading. Indeed, while written word processing was left-lateralized in controls, we found a strong right lateralization of the fusiform and inferior occipital gyri activation in RA. This finding goes in the same direction of recent proposals that the ventral occipito-temporal activity in word reading seem to lateralize to the same hemisphere as the one involved in spoken language processing.
%K ERPs
%K LORETA (low resolution electromagnetic tomography)
%K N170
%K ventral occipito-temporal (vOT) cortex
%K reading
%K deafness
%K hemispheric asymmetry
%K neuroplasticity
%U http://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/3/2/908