Early visual deprivation changes cortical anatomical covariance in dorsal-stream structures

Voss, Patrice; Zatorre, Robert J.

doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.12.063

Cited by 31 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 68 publications

(87 reference statements)

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“…Our study, along with other recent work (e.g., [67, 79]), demonstrates that these numerous brain changes can be assembled into meaningful sets, and reflect extensions of the variation seen in normal development. An exciting avenue for further investigation is if particular clinical properties of blindness produce more or less alteration of the different anatomical clusters of variation that we find here.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 75%

“…We regard the relationship between the anatomical variation we have measured and the properties of higher visual areas and their connections as a promising area for future study. As an example of this direction of investigation, recent work finds that the covariance of early visual cortex thickness with dorsal visual areas is related to enhanced sensory abilities in the blind [79], and that there are differential effects of blindness upon dorsal and ventral stream white matter anisotropy [80]. Decoupling of occipital and frontal anatomical features has been observed in the blind [79], suggesting that this is a promising avenue of investigation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As an example of this direction of investigation, recent work finds that the covariance of early visual cortex thickness with dorsal visual areas is related to enhanced sensory abilities in the blind [79], and that there are differential effects of blindness upon dorsal and ventral stream white matter anisotropy [80]. Decoupling of occipital and frontal anatomical features has been observed in the blind [79], suggesting that this is a promising avenue of investigation. Similarly, our study examined changes along the retinofugal visual pathway, and not the brainstem system for vision that includes the superior colliculi.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Patterns of Individual Variation in Visual Pathway Structure and Function in the Sighted and Blind

et al. 2016

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Many structural and functional brain alterations accompany blindness, with substantial individual variation in these effects. In normally sighted people, there is correlated individual variation in some visual pathway structures. Here we examined if the changes in brain anatomy produced by blindness alter the patterns of anatomical variation found in the sighted. We derived eight measures of central visual pathway anatomy from a structural image of the brain from 59 sighted and 53 blind people. These measures showed highly significant differences in mean size between the sighted and blind cohorts. When we examined the measurements across individuals within each group we found three clusters of correlated variation, with V1 surface area and pericalcarine volume linked, and independent of the thickness of V1 cortex. These two clusters were in turn relatively independent of the volumes of the optic chiasm and lateral geniculate nucleus. This same pattern of variation in visual pathway anatomy was found in the sighted and the blind. Anatomical changes within these clusters were graded by the timing of onset of blindness, with those subjects with a post-natal onset of blindness having alterations in brain anatomy that were intermediate to those seen in the sighted and congenitally blind. Many of the blind and sighted subjects also contributed functional MRI measures of cross-modal responses within visual cortex, and a diffusion tensor imaging measure of fractional anisotropy within the optic radiations and the splenium of the corpus callosum. We again found group differences between the blind and sighted in these measures. The previously identified clusters of anatomical variation were also found to be differentially related to these additional measures: across subjects, V1 cortical thickness was related to cross-modal activation, and the volume of the optic chiasm and lateral geniculate was related to fractional anisotropy in the visual pathway. Our findings show that several of the structural and functional effects of blindness may be reduced to a smaller set of dimensions. It also seems that the changes in the brain that accompany blindness are on a continuum with normal variation found in the sighted.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 75%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Patterns of Individual Variation in Visual Pathway Structure and Function in the Sighted and Blind

et al. 2016

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“…At the neurophysiological level, it has been reported that blind individuals show enhanced occipital cortex (specifically, the middle and superior occipital gyri) activity during the haptic recognition of facial expressions (Kitada et al, 2013), and enhanced amygdala responses to emotional auditory stimuli (Klinge et al, 2010) as compared with sighted controls. These results are in line with a contemporary view suggesting that early visual deprivation is associated with compensatory behaviors that are intimately related to underlying changes in the overall structural and functional organization of the brain (e.g., Hasson, Andric, Atilgan, & Collignon, 2016; Voss & Zatorre, 2015; for reviews, see Cattaneo et al, 2008; Ricciardi, Bonino, Pellegrini, & Pietrini, 2014). …”

supporting

confidence: 90%

Emotion processing in early blind and sighted individuals.

Gamond

Vecchi²,

Ferrari

et al. 2017

Neuropsychology

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Objective Emotion processing is known to be mediated by a complex network of cortical and subcortical regions with evidence of specialized hemispheric lateralization within the brain. In light of prior evidence indicating that lateralization of cognitive functions (such as language) may depend on normal visual development, we investigated whether the lack of prior visual experience would have an impact on the development of specialized hemispheric lateralization in emotional processing. Method We addressed this issue by comparing performance in early blind and sighted controls on a dichotic listening task requiring the detection of specific emotional vocalizations (i.e., suggestive of happiness or sadness) presented independently to either ear. Results Consistent with previous studies, we found that sighted individuals showed enhanced detection of positive vocalizations when presented in the right ear (i.e., processed within the left hemisphere) and negative vocalizations when presented in the left ear (i.e., right hemisphere). It is interesting to note that although blind individuals were as accurate as sighted controls in detecting the valance of the vocalization, performance was not consistent with any pattern of specialized hemispheric lateralization. Conclusions Overall, these results suggest that although the lack of prior visual experience may not lead to impaired emotion processing performance, the underlying neurophysiological substrate (i.e., degree of special hemispheric lateralization) may depend on normal visual development.

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“…Patterns of coordinated grey matter morphology have been proposed to reflect functional co-activation (Alexander-Bloch et al, 2013;Andrews et al, 1997;Bailey et al, 2014;Hopkins, 2004;Krongold et al, 2015), axonal connectivity (Budday et al, 2014;Gong et al, 2012) and/or genetic factors (Chen et al, 2013;Schmitt et al, 2009;2008). Analogously, brain areas that are involved in specific cognitive or behavioral functions seem to deteriorate in a coordinated way (Sepulcre et al, 2012;Voss and Zatorre, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gray matter network differences between behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease

Vijverberg

Tijms

Dopp

et al. 2017

Neurobiology of Aging

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We set out to study whether single-subject grey matter (GM) networks show disturbances that are specific for Alzheimer's disease (AD) (n=90) or behavioral variant Frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) (n=59), and whether such disturbances would be related to cognitive deficits measured with Mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and a neuropsychological battery, using subjective cognitive decline subjects (SCD) as reference. AD and bvFTD patients had a lower degree, connectivity density, clustering, path length, betweenness centrality and small world values compared to SCD. AD patients had a lower connectivity density than bvFTD patients (F = 5.79, p = 0.02; Mean±SD bvFTD 16.10% ± 1.19; Mean±SD AD 15.64% ± 1.02). Lasso logistic regression showed that connectivity differences between bvFTD and AD were specific to 23 anatomical areas, in terms of local GM volume, degree and clustering. Lower clustering values and lower degree values were specifically associated with worse MMSE scores and lower performance on the neuropsychological tests. GM showed disease-specific alterations, when comparing bvFTD with AD patients, and these alterations were associated with cognitive deficits.

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Early visual deprivation changes cortical anatomical covariance in dorsal-stream structures

Cited by 31 publications

References 68 publications

Patterns of Individual Variation in Visual Pathway Structure and Function in the Sighted and Blind

Patterns of Individual Variation in Visual Pathway Structure and Function in the Sighted and Blind

Emotion processing in early blind and sighted individuals.

Gray matter network differences between behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease

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