Activation of the auditory cortex in subjects with unilateral sensorineural hearing impairment in response to hearing their own names

This study investigated the differences in activation of the auditory cortex between subjects with right and left unilateral sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) when hearing their own names spoken by an unknown voice. All experiments were performed in the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital. Magnetic resonance imaging was acquired using a 3-Tesla Siemens scanner. Ten subjects with unilateral SNHL were recruited (3 male and 7 female, aged 30 ± 14.9 years, with 14 ± 6.29 hearing-impaired years). The activation pattern in the contralateral auditory cortex was wider than in the ipsilateral auditory cortex for all unilateral SNHL subjects. The auditory cortex of subjects with left SNHL hearing their own names spoken by an unknown voice was more active than it was in subjects with right SNHL. Despite this difference, however, subjects with unilateral SNHL in different ears were still generally treated with the same management strategies. The activation of the subjects' auditory cortex in response to hearing their own names spoken by an unknown voice was different between the two groups. Therefore, it indicates that the ability of residual hearing of subjects to recognize their own name spoken by an unknown voice varies depending on the side of their SNHL.