# Characterizing the Impact of Auditory Experience on Language, Cognitive, and Neural Development in Children

> **NIH NIH P20** · FATHER FLANAGAN'S BOYS' HOME · 2024 · $310,934

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract: Research Project (3)
 Characterizing the Impact of Auditory Experience
on Language, Cognitive, and Neural Development in Children
It is well-established that children with hearing loss are at risk for language and academic deficits. Hearing loss
is also known to impact cognitive measures such as working memory, and language ability positively correlates
with these higher-order cognitive skills. However, delays in children with hearing loss are not universal; some
fall significantly behind children with normal hearing (CNH), while others perform similarly to CNH. Recent work
in children with mild-to-severe hearing loss (i.e., children who are hard-of-hearing (CHH)) who wear hearing aids
(HAs) suggests that the severity of language delays correlates with auditory dosage, an index of auditory
experience defined by HA audibility, or the degree to which a HA improves access to speech, and the amount
of HA use. Taken together, language, cognitive function, and auditory experience appear to be tightly linked, and
a combination of these factors likely explains much of the variability in outcomes in CHH. However, there is
currently no overall framework that captures these relationships. It is difficult to probe the interactions between
language and cognition using behavioral tests, as they rely on end-point metrics and cannot evaluate cognitive
processing in real-time; thus, an investigation of the central neural mechanisms is crucial. The proposed project
will provide pivotal new data on the impact of auditory experience on cognitive, language, and neural function in
children. Our groundbreaking preliminary work has shown altered neural dynamics during higher-order cognitive
processing in CHH relative to CNH, and that these neural aberrations are significantly linked with the amount of
HA use and language ability. In the current study, we will probe the interactions between auditory experience,
language, and cognition using an innovative multimodal approach. Specifically, we will enroll a large cohort of
CHH and demographically matched CNH and all will undergo magnetoencephalographic imaging during verbal
and nonverbal cognitive tasks, structural MRI, and a battery of neuropsychological and audiometric tests. In Aim
1, we will identify differences in behavior and neurophysiology during verbal and nonverbal cognition in CHH and
CNH. We posit that CHH will exhibit altered neural activity in fronto-parietal language regions during verbal
cognitive tasks, while executive function and memory networks will be atypical during nonverbal cognitive tasks.
In Aim 2, we will determine which neural markers of higher-order cognitive processing predict language ability,
and how the relationships between language and neural function are altered in CHH. We hypothesize that neural
activity during nonverbal cognition will predict language function above and beyond neural markers of verbal
cognitive processing. In Aim 3, we will clarify the impact ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10793555
- **Project number:** 5P20GM144641-03
- **Recipient organization:** FATHER FLANAGAN'S BOYS' HOME
- **Principal Investigator:** Elizabeth Heinrichs-Graham
- **Activity code:** P20 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $310,934
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-03-01 → 2027-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10793555

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10793555, Characterizing the Impact of Auditory Experience on Language, Cognitive, and Neural Development in Children (5P20GM144641-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10793555. Licensed CC0.

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