Attention may differentially modulate ERPs to auditory and visual events in individuals with normal hearing and those with cochlear implants.

Auditory deprivation results in neuroplastic changes that may underpin functional changes. This is evidenced by a deaf individual‟s enhanced ability to detect moving stimuli in the peripheral visual field. Research suggests that these induced changes persist and cause functional problems in non-proficient cochlear implant (CI) recipients. Changes in selective attention after auditory deprivation have also been documented. However, whether these attention-related changes impair CI users‟ performance, has not been investigated. The aim of this study was to determine if attentional changes, namely, a propensity to attend to visual over auditory stimuli, persist in some CI recipients. Normal hearing controls (N=12), long (N=6) and short (N=6) deaf CI recipients completed an intermodal selective attention task. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded to rare and common auditory and visual stimuli while participants completed tasks that manipulated attention across modes. It was predicted that short deaf CI and normal hearing individuals‟ ERPs would vary according to where attention was directed whereas ERPs of CI recipients who had experienced long periods of auditory deprivation would show altered outcomes. The results showed that for all groups attention enhanced the ERPs to the visual stimuli and common auditory tones. However, attention did not enhance ERPs to the auditory deviant tone for the long deaf CI group, whereas it did for the other groups. Therefore, even when attention was directed toward the rare and salient tone, their neural responses remained unaffected and the same as when this tone was presented in ignore conditions. This suggests that changes in attention persist for some CI users after sound is restored, for rare auditory sounds. It will be of future interest to determine if this attentional difference modulates the speech perception outcomes of this group. These findings will help extend our understanding of the role attention may play in CI language performance outcomes.