8.  Language and the Inferior Colliculi

    1 - Loss of Speech Comprehension Following Injury to the Inferior Colliculi
  • Since the advent of MRI scanning in the early 1990s, at least 13 reports have been
    published of people who lost the ability to comprehend spoken language following
    damage of the inferior colliculi.
  • How much more serious impairment of function in the inferior colliculi must be for
    an infant.  How could such a child ever learn to speak?

    2 - Effect of injury to the inferior colliculi, case reports
  1. Howe JR & Miller CA (1975) Midbrain deafness following head injury.
  2. Jani NN et al. (1991) Deafness after bilateral midbrain contusion.
  3. Nagao M et al. (1992) Haemorrhage in the inferior colliculus.
  4. Meyer B et al (1996) Pure word deafness after resection of a tectal plate glioma.
  5. Hu C-J, et al. (1997)  Traumatic brainstem deafness.
  6. Johkura K et al (1998) Defective auditory recognition after small hemorrhage in
    the inferior colliculi (from injury in a ski accident).
  7. Masuda S et al (2000) Word deafness after resection of a pineal body tumor.
  8. Vitte E et al (2002) Midbrain deafness (case 1).
  9. Vitte E et al (2002) Midbrain deafness (case 2).
  10. Hoistad DL et al (2003) Central hearing loss with a bilateral inferior colliculus
    lesion.
  11. Musiek FE et al (2004) Central deafness associated with a midbrain lesion.
  12. Pan CL et al (2004) Auditory agnosia caused by a tectal germinoma.
  13. Kimiskidis VK et al (2004) Sensorineural hearing loss and word deafness
    caused by a mesencephalic lesion.