Neural correlates of visual stimulus encoding and verbal working memory differ between cochlear implant users and normal?hearing controls

A common concern for individuals with severe-to-profound hearing loss fitted cochlear implants (CIs) is difficulty following conversations in noisy environments. Recent work has suggested that these difficulties are related to individual differences brain function, including verbal working memory and the degree of cross-modal reorganization auditory areas visual processing. However, neural basis relationships not fully understood. Here, we investigated correlates sensory plasticity 14 CI users age-matched normal-hearing (NH) controls. While recorded high-density electroencephalogram (EEG), participants completed a modified Sternberg task where sets letters numbers were presented visually then recalled at later time. Results had comparable behavioural performance compared NH. more pronounced activity during stimulus encoding, stronger visual-evoked cortices, larger modulations oscillations increased frontotemporal connectivity. In contrast, retention characters, descriptively weaker significantly lower We interpret processing through lens intramodal plasticity.