Health Headlines
Reuters
Tuesday November 27 1:29 PM ET
Brain Changes Help Deaf People Feel, Sense Music
By John Schieszer SEATTLE (Reuters Health) - Deaf people undergo brain changes that allow them to perceive music in much the same way that hearing people do, new research suggests. ``It was once thought that brains were just hard-wired at birth, and particular areas of the brain always did one function, no matter what else happened. It turns out that, fortunately, our genes do not directly dictate the wiring of our brains,'' said Dr. Dean Shibata, an assistant professor of radiology at the University of Washington. ``I think it is very interesting that the brain is able to be plastic and able to adapt.'' Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans, Shibata found that deaf people's brains rewire themselves to ''hear'' vibrations using the auditory cortex, which normally processes sound. The brain scans suggest that deaf people may be ``feeling'' and ``sensing'' music as much as hearing people do, he explained. ``Our research suggests this part of the brain is geared for processing sound-like sensations, and shows people born deaf can adapt to 'hear' what their fingers feel,'' Shibata explained. ``Their ultimate perception of music may be pretty similar (to that of hearing people).'' Shibata and colleagues performed brain scans on 10 students from the National Technical institute of the Deaf in Rochester, New York, and 11 hearing students. Each held a plastic pipe, which was intermittently vibrated in his or her right hand. The students indicated when they detected vibration. Results from the fMRI showed that during vibration, both groups had brain activation in the left perirolandic cortex, the area of the brain that processes touch. However, in the deaf students, but not in the hearing students, brain activation also was seen in the superior temporal gyri, areas of the brain normally active while the brain is processing sound. Shibata pointed out that these findings are important because they suggest that tactile listening aids may better help deaf children understand speech and other sounds. These devices convert sound energy into vibrational energy, which deaf individuals can feel with their fingers. Shibata, who conducted the study while he was at the University of Rochester, said exposing deaf children to music early in life may help stimulate and develop ``music centers'' in their brains. ``By using this vibration sense early in life, and particularly for looking at speech and music, hopefully that circuit will be more strongly developed than if they wait until later in life,'' he said in an interview with Reuters Health. Other experts in this area of medicine say these findings are important because they point to new strategies for teaching and training deaf children. ``What we are seeing in these individuals are changes that probably occurred during child development. It may be that this same type of flexibility doesn't exist in the adult brain. Training children early may be very important to try to take advantage of this developmental flexibility of the brain,'' Dr. Randy Buckner, an associate professor of psychology, radiology and neurobiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, said in an interview with Reuters Health. Shibata added that the findings from this study also are important for neurosurgeons because they may need to make sure they avoid these areas of the brain when performing surgery on deaf individuals. He presented his findings Tuesday in Chicago, Illinois at the Radiological Society of North America's 87th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting. Tuesday May 22 07:13 PM EDT Studies: