Temporal cues trick the visual and auditory cortices mimicking spatial cues in blind individuals

Gori, Monica; Amadeo, Maria Bianca; Campus, Claudio

doi:10.1002/hbm.24931

Cited by 10 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…We wished to test if, with increasing BD, temporal cues during a spatial bisection task alter performance and recruitment of the visual and auditory cortices of LB individuals in a manner similar to that seen in early blind individuals (Gori et al, 2020b). In fact, we previously showed that in early blind people the second sound (S2) of the spatial bisection does not produce the early contralateral occipital activation observed in sighted individuals (Campus et al, 2019).…”

Section: Behavioral and Eeg Data Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The time employed to answer was recorded to ensure participants were engaged in the task. For more information about setup and procedure refer to Gori et al (2020b).…”

Section: Stimuli and Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We used the mean of left and right mastoids as reference. For more information about EEG data processing refer to Gori et al (2020b).…”

Section: Eeg Data Collection and Preprocessingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The lack of this response has been proposed as the neural correlate of a low performance at the task. However, by adding coherent or conflicting temporal cues in the spatial bisection task, we noticed that, in early blind people, the same early occipital response is elicited by temporal cues (Gori et al, 2020b). To test whether the same mechanism characterizes performance and cortical recruitment FIGURE 1 | Spatial and temporal bisection tasks.…”

Section: Behavioral and Eeg Data Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For each ERP the total number of trials was equal to 1410, approximately 59 per subject. Based on our hypothesis (Gori et al, 2020b), we focused our analyses on a time window of 50-90 ms after the sounds, using electrodes involved in visual (O1, O2 in occipital areas) and auditory (T7, T8 in temporal areas) activity ( Figure 1C). The choice of time window and scalp sites was based on microstate analyses and topographic analysis of covariance conducted in a previous study of spatial bisection skills following late blindness (Amadeo et al, 2019).…”

Section: Behavioral and Eeg Data Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

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Years of Blindness Lead to “Visualize” Space Through Time

2020

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Spatial representation has been widely studied in early blindness, whereas research about late blindness is still limited. We recently demonstrated that the early (50-90 ms) event-related potential (ERP) response observed in sighted people during a spatial bisection task, is altered in early blind people and is influenced by the amount of time spent without vision in late blind individuals. Specifically, in late blind people a shorter period of blindness is associated with strong contralateral activation in occipital cortex and good performance during the spatial task-similar to that of sighted people. In contrast, non-lateralized occipital activation and lower performance characterize late blind individuals who have experienced a longer period of blindness-similar to that of early blind people. However, the same early occipital response activated in sighted individuals by spatial cues has been found to be activated by temporal cues in early blind individuals. Here, we investigate whether a similar temporal attraction can explain the neural and behavioral changes observed after many years of blindness in late blind people. An EEG recording was taken during a spatial bisection task where coherent and conflicting spatio-temporal information was presented. In participants with long blindness duration, the early recruitment of both visual and auditory areas is sensitive to temporal instead of spatial coordinates. These findings highlight some limits of neuroplasticity. Perceptual advantages from cross-sensory calibration during development seem to be subsequently lost following years of visual deprivation. This result has important implications for clinical outcomes following late blindness, highlighting the importance of timing in intervention and rehabilitation programs that activate compensatory strategies soon after sensory loss.

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Section: Behavioral and Eeg Data Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The time employed to answer was recorded to ensure participants were engaged in the task. For more information about setup and procedure refer to Gori et al (2020b).…”

Section: Stimuli and Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We used the mean of left and right mastoids as reference. For more information about EEG data processing refer to Gori et al (2020b).…”

Section: Eeg Data Collection and Preprocessingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Behavioral and Eeg Data Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Behavioral and Eeg Data Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

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Years of Blindness Lead to “Visualize” Space Through Time

2020

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Multisensory representations of space and time in sensory cortices

Gori

Bertonati

Campus

et al. 2022

Human Brain Mapping

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Clear evidence demonstrated a supramodal organization of sensory cortices with multisensory processing occurring even at early stages of information encoding. Within this context, early recruitment of sensory areas is necessary for the development of fine domain-specific (i.e., spatial or temporal) skills regardless of the sensory modality involved, with auditory areas playing a crucial role in temporal processing and visual areas in spatial processing. Given the domain-specificity and the multisensory nature of sensory areas, in this study, we hypothesized that preferential domains of representation (i.e., space and time) of visual and auditory cortices are also evident in the early processing of multisensory information. Thus, we measured the event-related potential (ERP) responses of 16 participants while performing multisensory spatial and temporal bisection tasks. Audiovisual stimuli occurred at three different spatial positions and time lags and participants had to evaluate whether the second stimulus was spatially (spatial bisection task) or temporally (temporal bisection task) farther from the first or third audiovisual stimulus. As predicted, the second audiovisual stimulus of both spatial and temporal bisection tasks elicited an early ERP response (time window 50-90 ms) in visual and auditory regions. However, this early ERP component was more substantial in the occipital areas during the spatial bisection task, and in the temporal regions during the temporal bisection task. Overall, these results confirmed the domain specificity of visual and auditory cortices and revealed that this aspect selectively modulates also the cortical activity in response to multisensory stimuli.

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Task‐dependent spatial processing in the visual cortex

Bertonati,

Amadeo,

Campus

et al. 2023

Human Brain Mapping

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To solve spatial tasks, the human brain asks for support from the visual cortices. Nonetheless, representing spatial information is not fixed but depends on the reference frames in which the spatial inputs are involved. The present study investigates how the kind of spatial representations influences the recruitment of visual areas during multisensory spatial tasks. Our study tested participants in an electroencephalography experiment involving two audio–visual (AV) spatial tasks: a spatial bisection, in which participants estimated the relative position in space of an AV stimulus in relation to the position of two other stimuli, and a spatial localization, in which participants localized one AV stimulus in relation to themselves. Results revealed that spatial tasks specifically modulated the occipital event‐related potentials (ERPs) after the onset of the stimuli. We observed a greater contralateral early occipital component (50–90 ms) when participants solved the spatial bisection, and a more robust later occipital response (110–160 ms) when they processed the spatial localization. This observation suggests that different spatial representations elicited by multisensory stimuli are sustained by separate neurophysiological mechanisms.

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Temporal cues trick the visual and auditory cortices mimicking spatial cues in blind individuals

Cited by 10 publications

References 61 publications

Years of Blindness Lead to “Visualize” Space Through Time

Years of Blindness Lead to “Visualize” Space Through Time

Multisensory representations of space and time in sensory cortices

Task‐dependent spatial processing in the visual cortex

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