Occipital Activation by Pattern Recognition in the Early Blind Using Auditory Substitution for Vision

Arno, Patricia; Volder, Anne De; Vanlierde, Annick; Wanet-Defalque, Marie-Chantal; Streel, Emmanuel; Robert, Annie; Sanabria-BohÃ3rquez, Sandra; Veraart, Claude

doi:10.1006/nimg.2000.0731

Cited by 130 publications

(97 citation statements)

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“…A likely basis for the extensive visual cortex responses to heard nouns is a general sensitivity to various non-language-related auditory stimuli in early (Kujala et al, 1995a(Kujala et al, ,b, 1997Röder et al, 1996Röder et al, , 2000Röder et al, , 2001Lessard et al, 1998;Liotti et al, 1998;Leclerc et al, 2000;Weeks et al, 2000;Arno et al, 2001) and late blind (Kujala et al, 2000) individuals. A PET study, for example, showed V1 activity in early blind subjects during a soundlocalization task (Weeks et al, 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual Cortex Activity in Early and Late Blind People

2003

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual Cortex Activity in Early and Late Blind People

2003

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“…For example, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography studies have established that medial occipital areas respond to a variety of stimuli and tasks (Sadato et al, 1998;De Volder et al, 1999;Weeks et al, 2000;Arno et al, 2001;Röder et al, 2002;Amedi et al, 2003;Burton, 2003;Burton et al, 2004;Gougoux et al, 2005;Poirier et al, 2005;Collignon et al, 2006). Indeed, the function of the "visual cortex" in early onset blindness remains speculative, precisely because it responds to so many different stimuli and tasks.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preparatory Activity in Occipital Cortex in Early Blind Humans Predicts Auditory Perceptual Performance

Stevens¹,

Snodgrass²,

Schwartz³

et al. 2007

J. Neurosci.

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Early onset blindness leads to a dramatic alteration in the way the world is perceived, a change that is detectable in the organization of the brain. Several studies have confirmed that blindness leads to functional alterations in occipital cortices that normally serve visual functions. These reorganized brain regions respond to a variety of tasks and stimuli, but their specific functions are unclear. In sighted individuals, several studies have reported preparatory activity in retinotopic areas, which enhances perceptual sensitivity. "Baseline shifts," changes in activity associated with a cue predicting an upcoming event, provides a marker for attentional modulation. Here we demonstrate that, in early blind subjects, medial occipital areas produced significant blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) responses to a cue signaling an auditory discrimination trial but not to a cue indicating a no-trial period. Furthermore, the amplitude of the BOLD response in the anterior calcarine sulcus of early blind subjects correlated with their discrimination performance on the auditory backward masking task. Preparatory BOLD responses also were present in auditory cortices, although they were more robust in blind than sighted control subjects. The pattern of response in visual areas is similar to preparatory effects observed during visual selective attention in sighted subjects and consistent with the hypothesis that the mechanisms implicated in visual attention continue to modulate occipital cortex in the early blind. A possible source of this top-down modulation may be the frontoparietal circuits that retain their connectivity with the reorganized occipital cortex and as a result influence processing of nonvisual stimuli in the blind.

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“…Interestingly, a susceptibility to the Ponzo illusion was previously observed using the same device (Renier, Laloyaux, et al, 2005). In addition, neuroimaging studies have shown a recruitment of visual brain areas during the use of the PSVA, which also highlights the visual nature of perceptions obtained by this sensory substitution device (Arno, De Volder, et al, 2001;. From a more general perspective, these observations suggest that the nature of perception is not predominantly determined by the sensory modality.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 54%

“…This "visual" experience using the PSVA would, in turn, allow them to become sensitive to some visual illusions. Various functional imaging studies have indicated that the inputs from auditory and tactile modalities are capable of promoting efficient functional development of extrastriate visual areas in the absence of vision (see, e.g., Amedi, Raz, Pianka, Malach, & Zohary, 2003;Büchel et al, 1998;Sadato et al, 1998;Weeks et al, 2000) and that the activity of extrastriate visual cortex can be modulated by new perceptual experience (Arno, De Volder, et al, 2001).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%