Left vs Right Brain & Cochlear Implants

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Passionate4ASL

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I am sure many of you have already read the article 'Changing the Future for a Deaf Child' , and were upset by it, as was I. But there was an topic in the article I would like to factually prove or disprove; The theory of left brian and right brain processing sound differently through cochlear implants. Much like the rest of the article, I believe this theory is bogus and lacks supporting proof but I would like to prove it either way. Does anyone know any 'fact' based resources? or other information along the lines of this theory? Anyone going through the CI process that has had the Doc suggest a side for language processing? :hmm:


:ty:
 
No matter which side the stimuli is received on, language is processed on the left side of the brain. At least it is for 97% of the population. The other 3% have either abnormalities from birth, or have suffered an injury that has made the language processing centers non-functional.

Any anatomy book, physiological or biological psych book, cognitive psych book, or even an intro psych book that covers brain anatomy has this information available.
 
Mod's Note:

The thread is moved to it's proper location.
 
All I can say that the writer of the story is SORELY lacking in knowledge of what CI does. People are still fine with just one implant...a lot of my friends that i know personally only has one implant and they're happy. I'm not because I feel so one-sided and I'm used to using two ears.

So yes, the "fact" that because she had her right ear implanted meant she's lacking in the language on the left side is bogus. Like Jillio says - no matter what side the stimuli is on, it still receives information in whatever part of the brain.

I suspect that the girl has not been receiving full language development (ie - Sign language and oral communication). Sadly, I see this a LOT here in Las Vegas and Utah. Las Vegas and majority of Utah is isolated, so it's very tough to set up an established bi-bi approach for the children.

Las Vegas has deaf children (about half implanted) spread all over the city because the districts do not want to waste money to pay for busing to the school for the deaf (I have to find out if there *is* a school, or it's just a classroom setting). So, the children do very poorly in classes. Interpreters are hired, but they have told me that the students doesn't even know sign language or have the ability to actually communicate. The teachers just passes them because they don't want the hassle. Now...THAT is sad.

Unfortunately, these are the type of stories that makes hearing people say, "Oh my gosh, i feel so bad for the girl. I'm gonna write a letter to the insurance company, and complain." While they know nothing, and majority of the insurance companies won't pay for second implant ANYWAYS. The writer is just sugar coating it. It doesn't make sense to me that he/she said that insurance companies think it's still "experimental". WTH? It's been around for 20 years!
 
Oh I forgot to update this thread! I finally found some FACTual proof straight from an Audiologist. My question was even published on his webpage. :D In a simple summary a CI only implants up to your auditory nerve and from there out works the same whether ear or CI. And no the two sides of the brain don't work seperate from each other. Left ear or right ear your brain still processes it the same. For more information read the whole article. www.drcraigkasper.com - Ask the audiologist - Cochlear implants and the brain.
 
It doesn't make sense to me that he/she said that insurance companies think it's still "experimental". WTH? It's been around for 20 years!
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Maybe they meant that bilateral implantation is still experimental.
 
Passionate4ASL said:
Oh I forgot to update this thread! I finally found some FACTual proof straight from an Audiologist. My question was even published on his webpage. :D In a simple summary a CI only implants up to your auditory nerve and from there out works the same whether ear or CI. And no the two sides of the brain don't work seperate from each other. Left ear or right ear your brain still processes it the same. For more information read the whole article. www.drcraigkasper.com - Ask the audiologist - Cochlear implants and the brain.
Click to expand...

I'm uncomfortable there wasn't any research cited in the above article. I couldn't find anything online to indicate that Spitzer had actually evaluated whether the side of the ear makes a difference in CI outcomes; that doesn't mean that she didn't do it, but I couldn't find it.

Check out this article about the differences between left and right ears in infants at:

Left And Right Ears Not Created Equal As Newborns Process Sound, Finds UCLA/UA Research

and this more recent one at:
UC Irvine Study Sheds Light On Why Cochlear Implant Users Have Difficulty Understanding Tonal Languages

When you consider that the side of the ear does make a difference for processing certain kinds of sounds, and that the second article states that sounds are processed in the right hemisphere first and then processed by the left hemisphere, there's reason to wonder whether what side the CI is implanted on could make a difference in outcomes.

There's even another article entitled, "Ear selection and pediatric cochlear implants: A preliminary examination of speech production outcomes," by Peter Flipsen, Jr, which recommended further study in this area. The study found "The children with right-ear implants performed significantly better than those with left-ear implants but only on the single word tasks. No significant differences were observed at the sentence or conversational speech levels." Sentence tests can be way too easy to figure out; I know that from personal experience. It's much more challenging to figure out what a single word is, and that's a better test of the person's ability to hear.
Since single words were discriminated significantly better by children with right-ear implants, their ability to process language quickly and to remember what was said could be significantly better in a way that wasn't tested by the study.
 
A fascinating topic all around. I have done some research into this and I've not really found a conclusive answer in my opinion one way or the other.

I'm with GadgetQueen in mentioning that there are differences in how the different sides process sounds. I have often wondered why I have done so well with a CI right from the start. To clarify, I'm a right side implantee and always heard out of the right side both HA and CI. This may be one of the missing pieces that explain my ability along with some other factors that I benefited from.

I can't claim that by itself the way one ear processes over the other makes an enormous difference. But I suspect that it can give an edge all things being equal. I think there needs to be more research done with on this subject.
 
sr171soars said:
A fascinating topic all around. I have done some research into this and I've not really found a conclusive answer in my opinion one way or the other.

I'm with GadgetQueen in mentioning that there are differences in how the different sides process sounds. I have often wondered why I have done so well with a CI right from the start. To clarify, I'm a right side implantee and always heard out of the right side both HA and CI. This may be one of the missing pieces that explain my ability along with some other factors that I benefited from.

I can't claim that by itself the way one ear processes over the other makes an enormous difference. But I suspect that it can give an edge all things being equal. I think there needs to be more research done with on this subject.
Click to expand...

All my life, my better ear has been my right ear, with which I use a hearing aid. I have a CI for my left ear, but I process sounds much, much better with my right ear. (I'm glad I didn't implant my right ear, though, because I value the residual hearing in that ear too much to risk losing it.)

I think there are also significant differences in how people interpret speech sounds, too. Maybe the brains of people who hear primarily with the right ear automatically fit the speech sounds into a pattern of words that can be predicted, using grammatical rules, known vocabulary, and other contextual information. The brains of people with hearing loss who hear primarily through the left ear may focus more on the sounds themselves and then provide the best interpretation of what the words sound like (without first using the left hemisphere to figure out what those words might be), which would be problematic since the hearing is often flawed. (But such people may be more creative, too!)

I think I myself don't pay all that much attention to actual speech sounds. I think my brain automatically uses a whole lot of information and many different parts of my brain to piece together what's being said instead of being totally dependent on my faulty hearing. The input from my left ear is sometimes distracting in noisy situations because it brings in excessive noise.

Hmm. Now that I've realized that, I'll start paying more attention to what I actually hear!
 
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