Increased functional connectivity between language and visually deprived areas in late and partial blindness

Sabbah, Nadia; Authié, Colas; Sanda, Nicolae; Mohand‐Saïd, Saddek; Sahel, José‐Alain; Safran, Avinoam B.; Habas, Christophe; Amedi, Amir

doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.04.056

Cited by 39 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 77 publications

(125 reference statements)

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“…The presence of responses to language in the visual cortex in individuals who become blind as adults is consistent with the observation of increased resting-state connectivity between Broca's area and the "visual" cortex in this population (Sabbah et al, 2016). Analogously, a recent study found increased resting-state connectivity between parts of the "visual" cortex that are responsive to number, and fronto-parietal number networks, even in adult-onset blind individuals (Kanjlia et al, 2018).…”

Section: A Sensitive Period In the Neural Substrates Of Language In Bsupporting

confidence: 86%

“…For example, like congenitally blind individuals, late-onset blind individuals activate "visual" cortices during Braille reading and verb generation Burton et al, 2002;Burton & McLaren, 2006). One study of resting state connectivity found that individuals with retinitis pigmentosa, who did not become totally blind until adulthood, show elevated correlations between inferior frontal language areas and occipital cortices (Sabbah et al, 2016). 6 temporal language areas themselves (Lane et al, 2015;Lane et al, 2017;Röder et al, 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A sensitive period in the neural phenotype of language in blind individuals

Pant

Kanjlia²,

Bedny³

2019

Preprint

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In congenital blindness, "visual" cortices respond to linguistic information, and fronto-temporal language networks are less left-lateralized. Does this plasticity follow a sensitive period? We tested this by comparing the neural basis of sentence processing in two experiments with adult-onset blind (AB, n=16), congenitally blind (CB, n=22) and blindfolded sighted controls (n=18). In Experiment 1, participants made semantic judgments for spoken sentences and solved math equations in a control condition. In Experiment 2, participants answered "who did what to whom" questions for grammatically complex (with syntactic movement) and grammatically simpler sentences. In a control condition, participants performed a memory task with lists of non-words. In both experiments, visual cortices of CB and AB but not sighted participants responded more to sentences than control conditions, but the effect was much larger in the CB group. Crucially, only the "visual" cortex of CB participants responded to grammatical complexity. Unlike the CB group, the AB group showed no reduction in left-lateralization of fronto-temporal language network relative to the sighted. These results suggest that blindness during development modifies the neural basis of language, and this effect follows a sensitive period.

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Section: A Sensitive Period In the Neural Substrates Of Language In Bsupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A sensitive period in the neural phenotype of language in blind individuals

Pant

Kanjlia²,

Bedny³

2019

Preprint

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“…More broadly, recent years have shown several other examples of the plastic nature of the primary visual cortex in a series of congenital conditions including achiasma, albinism and more (reviewed in Hoffmann & Dumoulin 2015) and in fewer studies even in adulthood (Sabbah et al, 2016) which fit well with our results.…”

Section: Task Specific Sensory Independent Recruitment Of V1supporting

confidence: 90%

Human Navigation Without and With Vision - the Role of Visual Experience and Visual Regions

Maidenbaum

Chebat

Amedi

2018

Preprint

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Human navigation relies on a wide range of visual retinotopic cortical regions yet the precise role that these regions play in navigation remains unclear. Are these regions mainly sensory input channels or also modality-independent spatial processing centers? Accordingly, will they be recruited for navigation also without vision, such as via audition? Will visual experience, or the lack thereof, affect this recruitment? Sighted, congenitally blind and sighted-blindfolded participants actively navigated virtual mazes during fMRI scanning before and after navigating them in the real world. Participants used the EyeCane visual-to-auditory navigation aid for non-visual navigation.We found that retinotopic regions, including both dorsal stream regions (e.g. V6) and primary regions (e.g. peripheral V1), were selectively recruited for non-visual navigation only after the participants mastered the EyeCane demonstrating rapid plasticity for non-visual navigation. The hippocampus, considered the navigation network’s core, displayed negative BOLD in all groups.Our results demonstrate the robustness of the retinotopic nodes modality-independent spatial role in non-visual human navigation to lifelong visual-deprivation, demonstrating that visual input during development is not required for their recruitment. Furthermore, our results with the blindfolded group demonstrate this recruitment’s robustness even to brief blindfolding, but only after brief training, demonstrating rapid task based plasticity. These results generalize the wider framework of task-selectivity rather than input-modality as a brain organization principle to dorsal-stream retinotopic areas and even for the first time to the primary visual cortex.HighlightsBoth visual and non-visual navigation recruit retinotopic regionsAfter training blindfolded subjects selectively recruit V1 & V6 for navigationThis holds also for participants with no visual experience (congenitally blind)The medial temporal lobe showed non-selective Negative BOLD in all groupsDeclaration of interestsAll authors declare that they have no conflicts of interests.

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“…Other sensory modalities usually recruit the occipital cortex after periods of deprivation [15]. This can take place even in normal sighted subjects with training [39] and also in RP patients with loss of vision at adult age [19]. Interestingly, in the RP patients, as in the congenitally blind, the recruitment of the primary cortex is particularly strong with language and memory areas, as demonstrated by the increase in functional connectivity between the occipital cortex, frontal cortex [40,41], and Broca area [41], rather than with other sensory cortex.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The study shows that only very limited plasticity was preserved, especially in V1, and that was strictly dependent on the short visual experience during childhood. Cross-modal plasticity [15–18], known to occur also in late blind subjects [19], may raise an additional obstacle to reactivate cortical responses to the restored input [20,21]. The success of a cochlear implant in restoring auditory function correlates well with the level of inactivity of acoustic primary cortices, as assessed by positron emission tomography study [22].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual BOLD Response in Late Blind Subjects with Argus II Retinal Prosthesis

et al. 2016

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Retinal prosthesis technologies require that the visual system downstream of the retinal circuitry be capable of transmitting and elaborating visual signals. We studied the capability of plastic remodeling in late blind subjects implanted with the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis with psychophysics and functional MRI (fMRI). After surgery, six out of seven retinitis pigmentosa (RP) blind subjects were able to detect high-contrast stimuli using the prosthetic implant. However, direction discrimination to contrast modulated stimuli remained at chance level in all of them. No subject showed any improvement of contrast sensitivity in either eye when not using the Argus II. Before the implant, the Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) activity in V1 and the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) was very weak or absent. Surprisingly, after prolonged use of Argus II, BOLD responses to visual input were enhanced. This is, to our knowledge, the first study tracking the neural changes of visual areas in patients after retinal implant, revealing a capacity to respond to restored visual input even after years of deprivation.

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Increased functional connectivity between language and visually deprived areas in late and partial blindness

Abstract: In the congenitally blind, language processing involves visual areas. In the case of

Cited by 39 publications

References 77 publications

A sensitive period in the neural phenotype of language in blind individuals

A sensitive period in the neural phenotype of language in blind individuals

Human Navigation Without and With Vision - the Role of Visual Experience and Visual Regions

Visual BOLD Response in Late Blind Subjects with Argus II Retinal Prosthesis

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