早期耳聋中层级视觉节律追踪的改变

文献信息

中文摘要

节律感知使人类能够在动态环境中导航。听觉系统尤其擅长处理节律性时间结构，且听觉训练对视觉节律感知的影响大于视觉训练，这引出了听觉编码可能支持视觉节律表征的假说。这提出了一个基本问题：听觉编码能力的剥夺是否以及在多大程度上影响视觉节律加工。为探究此问题，我们使用脑电图（EEG）评估了听力正常和早期耳聋参与者对层级视觉节律的皮层追踪。参与者观看2种类型的节律序列：几何形状和点光步行者。每种刺激类型均包含由刺激重复定义的较低阶基本节律，以及建立在知觉或认知组织之上的较高阶组块节律。结果显示，听力正常参与者在各种刺激中均表现出对基本节律和组块节律的稳健皮层追踪。相比之下，耳聋参与者表现出基本节律追踪保留，但组块节律追踪减弱。此外，与听力正常组相比，耳聋组表现出视觉-听觉和视觉-额叶功能连接减弱，且连接强度的个体差异与组块节律追踪呈正相关。这些发现支持层级听觉支架框架，其中听觉经验通过时间组块机制选择性地与较高阶视觉节律感知相关联。

英文摘要

Rhythm perception enables humans to navigate dynamic environments. The auditory system is particularly adept at processing rhythmic temporal structure, and auditory training exerts a greater influence than visual training on visual rhythm perception, leading to the hypothesis that auditory coding may support visual rhythm representation. This raises a fundamental question: whether and to what extent the deprivation of auditory coding capabilities influences visual rhythm processing. To investigate this issue, we assessed cortical tracking of hierarchical visual rhythms in hearing and early deaf participants using electroencephalography (EEG). Participants viewed 2 types of rhythmic sequences: geometric shapes and point-light walkers. Each stimulus type consists of a lower-order basic rhythm defined by stimulus recurrence and a higher-order chunk rhythm built on perceptual or cognitive organization. Results showed that hearing participants exhibited robust cortical tracking of both basic and chunk rhythms across stimuli. In contrast, deaf participants exhibited preserved tracking of basic rhythms but reduced tracking of chunk rhythms. Moreover, compared with the hearing group, the deaf group showed reduced visual-auditory and visual-frontal functional connectivity, and individual differences in connectivity strength were positively correlated with chunk-rhythm tracking. These findings support a hierarchical auditory scaffolding framework, in which auditory experience is selectively associated with higher-order visual rhythm perception through temporal chunking mechanisms.