Prelingual Deafened Cochlear Implant Users' Hot Inhibitory Control Skills
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Date
2020-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
The absence of auditory input during key periods of cortical development may yield an altered trajectory of neurocognitive development (Kral & Sharmu, 2012). Consequently, prelingually deafened cochlear implant (CI) users present a clinically significant elevated risk for deficits across several domains of executive function (EF), or goal directed behavior (Welsh, Pennington, & Groisser, 1991). One EF domain at risk in CI users is inhibitory control or the ability to inhibit internal impulses in pursuit of an overarching goal (Diamond, 2013). However, all performance-based metrics of inhibitory control used to assess CI users have been emotionally decontextualized (termed cool EF tasks). Yet, there is a growing body of literature among NH populations to suggest that emotionally salient tasks (termed hot EF tasks) require different cortical mechanisms (Happaney, Zelazo, Stuss, 2004; Egner, Etkin, Gale & Hirsch, 2008, Rubia, 2011; Nejati, Salehinejad, Nitsche, 2018). However, hot inhibitory control has yet to be examined among CI users. This thesis project sought to: 1) examine the hot inhibitory control abilities of prelingually deafened CI users and normal hearing (NH) children; and 2) evaluate the relationship between hot and cool inhibitory control in both NH and CI samples. Behavioral metrics suggest that CI users are at risk for significant deficits of hot inhibitory control skills, and that these deficits are not associated with cool inhibitory control. These preliminary findings suggest hot and cool inhibitory control recruit differing cognitive processes, which is important in understanding the longitudinal challenges that the prelingually deafened CI user population face.
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Keywords
Cochlear Implants, Pediatrics, Executive Function, Neurocognition, Inhibitory Control, Hot and Cool Executive Function