Critical Period for Cross-Modal Plasticity in Blind Humans: A Functional MRI Study

Sadato, Norihiro; Okada, Tomohisa; Honda, Manabu; Yonekura, Yoshiharu

doi:10.1006/nimg.2002.1111

Cited by 295 publications

(244 citation statements)

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“…For example, Neville et al reported changes in evoked visual response in congenitally deaf persons and interprfeted it as a neuroplastic change, in which visual input invades unused areas of the auditory cortex. [27] These fi nding were later confi rmed in studies of subjects with single sensory deprivation (auditory or visual) using neuroimaging techniques with greater spatial resolution (fMRI and PET), [5,[28][29][30] which demonstrated extensive cerebral reorganization in cortical areas, showing how auditory areas of the brain are activated by visual stimuli in deaf persons, [3] while the visual cortex is activated by somatosensory and auditory stimuli in blind persons. [5,28,31,32] Our fi ndings could be ascribed to this form of neuroplasticity, CMP.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Cross-modal plasticity in cuban visually-impaired child cochlear implant candidates: topography of somatosensory evoked potentials

Charroó-Ruíz¹,

Pérez-Abalo²,

Hernández³

et al. 2012

MEDICC rev.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Cross-modal plasticity in cuban visually-impaired child cochlear implant candidates: topography of somatosensory evoked potentials

Charroó-Ruíz¹,

Pérez-Abalo²,

Hernández³

et al. 2012

MEDICC rev.

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“…In addition, within a group of blind people a positive correlation has been observed between age at onset of vision loss and echolocation ability such that people who lost sight earlier in life are better at echolocation (Teng et al 2012). Most interestingly, positive correlations have also been observed between age at onset of vision loss and strength of CC activations in response to non-visual stimuli, so that people who have lost vision earlier in life tend to have stronger CC activations (Cohen et al 1999;Sadato et al 2002). In summary, both echolocation ability and activation in CC in response to non-visual input are increased in blind as compared to sighted people, and within groups of blind people both correlate positively with age at onset of vision loss.…”

Section: Underlying Mechanisms For Correlation Between Echolocation Amentioning

confidence: 96%

Correlation between vividness of visual imagery and echolocation ability in sighted, echo-naïve people

2014

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Citation for published item:h lerD vore nd ilsonD os nn gF nd qeeD feth ny uF @PHIRA 9gorrel tion etween vividness of visu l im gery nd e holo tion ility in sightedD e hoEn ¤ %ve peopleF9D ixperiment l r in rese r hFD PQP @TAF IWISEIWPS F Further information on publisher's website: The nal publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-014-3883-3. Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-pro t purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. The ability of humans to echolocate has been recognised since the 1940s. Little is known about what determines individual differences in echolocation ability, however. Although hearing ability has been suggested as an important factor in blind people and sighted trained echolocators, there is evidence to suggest that this may not be the case for sighted novices. Therefore non-auditory aspects of human cognition might be relevant. Previous brain imaging studies have shown activation of the early 'visual', i.e. calcarine, cortex during echolocation in blind echolocation experts, and also during visual imagery in blind and sighted people. Therefore, here we investigated the relationship between echolocation ability and vividness of visual imagery (VVI). 24 sighted echolocation novices completed Marks' (1973) VVI questionnaire and they also performed an echolocation size discrimination task. Furthermore, they participated in a battery of auditory tests that determined their ability to detect fluctuations in sound frequency and intensity, as well as hearing differences between the right and left ear. A correlational analysis revealed a significant relationship between participants' VVI and echolocation ability, i.e. participants with stronger vividness of visual imagery also had higher echolocation ability, even when differences in auditory abilities were taken into account. In terms of underlying mechanisms, we suggest that either the use of visual imagery is a strategy for echolocation, or that visual imagery and echolocation both depend on the ability to recruit calcarine cortex for cognitive tasks that do not rely on retinal input.

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“…In blind humans and experimentally blinded animals, normally visually responsive cortical areas are activated by nonvisual stimuli (Rauschecker, 1995). Functional imaging studies have shown activation of extrastriate cortical areas in early and, to a lesser extent, late blind subjects performing tactile tasks (Cohen et al, 1999;Sadato et al, 2002). According to several studies, primary visual cortex is activated only in early blind subjects (Sadato et al, 1996(Sadato et al, , 1998(Sadato et al, , 2002Cohen et al, 1999) (but see Büchel et al, 1998;Burton et al, 2002), yet tactile stimuli activated both striate and extrastriate cortex in sighted adults blindfolded for 5 d (PascualLeone and Hamilton, 2001).…”

Section: Evidence That Loss Of Sight Itself Drives Tactile Acuity Enhmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Functional imaging studies have shown activation of extrastriate cortical areas in early and, to a lesser extent, late blind subjects performing tactile tasks (Cohen et al, 1999;Sadato et al, 2002). According to several studies, primary visual cortex is activated only in early blind subjects (Sadato et al, 1996(Sadato et al, , 1998(Sadato et al, , 2002Cohen et al, 1999) (but see Büchel et al, 1998;Burton et al, 2002), yet tactile stimuli activated both striate and extrastriate cortex in sighted adults blindfolded for 5 d (PascualLeone and Hamilton, 2001). In several studies, the functional relevance of tactile occipital activation was confirmed through the use of disruptive transcranial magnetic stimulation (Cohen et al, 1997(Cohen et al, , 1999Pascual-Leone and Hamilton, 2001).…”

Section: Evidence That Loss Of Sight Itself Drives Tactile Acuity Enhmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Occipital cortical areas that normally subserve vision are activated in congenitally blind subjects performing auditory (Weeks et al, 2000) or tactile (Sadato et al, 1996(Sadato et al, , 1998(Sadato et al, , 2002Cohen et al, 1999;Melzer et al, 2001) spatial discrimination tasks (crossmodal plasticity). In addition, within the primary somatosensory cortex of Braille readers, the representation of the reading finger is enlarged (unimodal plasticity) (Pascual-Leone and Torres, 1993).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Tactile Acuity is Enhanced in Blindness

2003

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Functional imaging studies in blind subjects have shown tactile activation of cortical areas that normally subserve vision, but whether blind people have enhanced tactile acuity has long been controversial. We compared the passive tactile acuity of blind and sighted subjects on a fully automated grating orientation task and used multivariate Bayesian data analysis to determine predictors of acuity. Acuity was significantly superior in blind subjects, independently of the degree of childhood vision, light perception level, or Braille reading. Acuity was strongly dependent on the force of contact between the stimulus surface and the skin, declined with subject age, and was better in women than in men. Despite large intragroup variability, the difference between blind and sighted subjects was highly significant: the average blind subject had the acuity of an average sighted subject of the same gender but 23 years younger. The results suggest that crossmodal plasticity may underlie tactile acuity enhancement in blindness.

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Critical Period for Cross-Modal Plasticity in Blind Humans: A Functional MRI Study

Cited by 295 publications

References 50 publications

Cross-modal plasticity in cuban visually-impaired child cochlear implant candidates: topography of somatosensory evoked potentials

Cross-modal plasticity in cuban visually-impaired child cochlear implant candidates: topography of somatosensory evoked potentials

Correlation between vividness of visual imagery and echolocation ability in sighted, echo-naïve people

Tactile Acuity is Enhanced in Blindness

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