Hi:

It is possible for a patient with central non-congenital deafness --
whose hearing loss began in his/her mid 20s and who previously did not
have any hearing or medical problems -- to have totally-silent dreams
[like watching TV on "mute"] due to the abnormality in his/her brain? I
imagine in those who are deaf due to damage to parts of their brains
would be just as deaf in their dreams as during wake -- even if the
deafness is non-congenital [i.e. it could happen in a perfectly healthy

adult in his/her mid 20s who previously had no difficulty in hearing].
AFAIK, the parts of the brain that perceive sounds in our dreams are
the same as the parts of the that perceive actual sounds. So, IIRC, if
the deafness is due to brain anomaly, the dreams will be just as silent
as the real world. What if the parts of the brain that transmit and
process auditory info are not diseased but the parts that receive the
audio are damaged -- and the damage occurs in a healthy young
individual in his/her mid-20s who has never had any previous audio
impairment? Obviously this would result in loss of perception of real
sounds during wakefulness. Would it cause the individual to be deaf in
his/her dreams? I beleive -- though I could be wrong -- that the parts
that receive the ultimate auditory percept are similar whether the
audio perception is from reality or from dreams. I am talking of a case
where a person can imagine and remember sounds clearly, but loses the
ability to directly perceive auditory info. Auditory memories and
imaginations can and do occur but the patient simply cannot perceive
audio -- whether from real life or from dreams. I think that this is a
possible scenario. Has this ever happened to anyone?

The following quote from
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,1234739,00.html
makes me think so:

"You see things in dreams because your visual cortex is excited. You
hear things because auditory cortex is excited,"

Thanks,

Radium