Language and Sensory Neural Plasticity in the Superior Temporal Cortex of the Deaf

Figure 3

Correlations between superior temporal cortex (STC) activations and duration of deafness and onset of sign language learning in the profoundly deaf group. (a) A sagittal slice depicting the STC region of interest (ROI, selected based on the brain map showing the Group effect, Figure 2(b)) in the right hemisphere. Significant correlations were found in the profoundly deaf group () between right STC activity for the checkerboard and duration of deafness (, , Bonferroni corrected), but not between this activation and the onset of sign language learning (the age of starting to learn sign language) (, ). (b) In contrast, significant positive correlation was found between the activation for sign language and the onset of sign language learning (, , corrected), but not between the activation and hearing loss duration (, ). (c) In the profoundly deaf group (), the STC activity induced by all the visual language stimuli (including words, sign language, and lip-reading) was correlated with the onset of sign language learning (, , corrected), but not with the duration of deafness (, ).