Different activation patterns in the visual cortex of late and congenitally blind subjects
Abstract
A key issue in developmental neuroscience is the role of activity-dependent mechanisms in the epigenetic induction of functional organization in visual cortex. Ocular blindness and ensuing visual deprivation is one of the rare models available for the investigation of experience-dependent cortical reorganization in man. In a PET study we demonstrate that congenitally blind subjects show task-specific activation of extrastriate visual areas and parietal association areas during Braille reading, compared with auditory word processing. In contrast, blind subjects who lost their sight after puberty show additional activation in the primary visual cortex with the same tasks. Studies in blind-raised monkeys show that crossmodal responses in extrastriate areas can be elicited by somatosensory stimulation. This is consistent with the crossmodal extrastriate activations elicited by tactile processing in our congenitally blind subjects. Since primary visual cortex does not show crossmodal responses in primate studies, the differential activation in late and congenitally blind subjects highlights the possibility of reciprocal activation by visual imagery in subjects with early visual experience.
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- Authors
- Buchel, C.
- Venue
- Brain
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 1998-03-01
- Volume
- 121
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 409-419
- ISSN
- 0006-8950 (ISSN-L)
- 1460-2156
- OpenAlex
- W2138536880
- Cited by
- 426
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 21 · 2014: 22 · 2013: 20 · 2012: 28
- FWCI
- 5.52
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Brain (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (051067)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Tactile and Sensory Interactions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Multisensory perception and integration
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Keywords
- congenital blindness, late-onset blindness, visual cortex, cross-modal plasticity, extrastriate visual areas, primary visual cortex, Braille reading, auditory word processing, tactile processing, visual imagery, parietal association areas
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Auditory Perception, Blindness, Cerebrovascular Circulation, Female, Fingers, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Occipital Lobe, Reaction Time, Reading, Reference Values, Sensory Aids, Tomography, Emission-Computed, Touch, Visual Cortex
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