Massive cortical reorganization in sighted Braille readers

Siuda‐Krzywicka, Katarzyna; Bola, Łukasz; Paplińska, Małgorzata; Sumera, Ewa; Jednoróg, Katarzyna; Marchewka, Artur; Śliwińska, Magdalena; Amedi, Amir; Szwed, Marcin

doi:10.7554/elife.10762

Cited by 94 publications

(111 citation statements)

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“…The visual cortex becomes recruited for tactile and auditory perception in the blind (1,2,6,8,13,16,17,(41)(42)(43), and the auditory cortex becomes recruited for tactile and visual perception in the deaf (20-23, 26-29, 44). Such large-scale reorganization is also possible after intensive training in nondeprived subjects (5,12,(45)(46)(47)(48)(49). In particular, the ventral visual cortex was shown to be critical for learning tactile braille reading in sighted adults (5), suggesting that such plasticity could be the mechanism underlying complex learning without sensory deprivation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such large-scale reorganization is also possible after intensive training in nondeprived subjects (5,12,(45)(46)(47)(48)(49). In particular, the ventral visual cortex was shown to be critical for learning tactile braille reading in sighted adults (5), suggesting that such plasticity could be the mechanism underlying complex learning without sensory deprivation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…cross-modal plasticity | perception | auditory cortex | sensory deprivation | fMRI I t is well established that the brain is capable of large-scale reorganization following sensory deprivation, injury, or intensive training (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8). What remain unclear are the organizational principles that guide this process.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Task-specific reorganization of the auditory cortex in deaf humans

Bola

Zimmermann

Mostowski

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The principles that guide large-scale cortical reorganization remain unclear. In the blind, several visual regions preserve their task specificity; ventral visual areas, for example, become engaged in auditory and tactile object-recognition tasks. It remains open whether task-specific reorganization is unique to the visual cortex or, alternatively, whether this kind of plasticity is a general principle applying to other cortical areas. Auditory areas can become recruited for visual and tactile input in the deaf. Although nonhuman data suggest that this reorganization might be task specific, human evidence has been lacking. Here we enrolled 15 deaf and 15 hearing adults into an functional MRI experiment during which they discriminated between temporally complex sequences of stimuli (rhythms). Both deaf and hearing subjects performed the task visually, in the central visual field. In addition, hearing subjects performed the same task in the auditory modality. We found that the visual task robustly activated the auditory cortex in deaf subjects, peaking in the posterior–lateral part of high-level auditory areas. This activation pattern was strikingly similar to the pattern found in hearing subjects performing the auditory version of the task. Although performing the visual task in deaf subjects induced an increase in functional connectivity between the auditory cortex and the dorsal visual cortex, no such effect was found in hearing subjects. We conclude that in deaf humans the high-level auditory cortex switches its input modality from sound to vision but preserves its task-specific activation pattern independent of input modality. Task-specific reorganization thus might be a general principle that guides cortical plasticity in the brain.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Task-specific reorganization of the auditory cortex in deaf humans

Bola

Zimmermann

Mostowski

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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162

122

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“…In recent years, the occipital cortex, as well as adjacent ventral areas such as the fusiform gyrus (16,17), have been the main regions of interest in the study of cross-modal phenomena in blindness. Multiple studies have shown that the occipital cortex takes over multiple sensory abilities traditionally belonging to other unimodal cortices, such as auditory (18,19), tactile (20), or higher cognitive functions, including language processing (21).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brain circuit–gene expression relationships and neuroplasticity of multisensory cortices in blind children

Ortiz-Terán

Diez

Ortiz

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Sensory deprivation reorganizes neurocircuits in the human brain. The biological basis of such neuroplastic adaptations remains elusive. In this study, we applied two complementary graph theory-based functional connectivity analyses, one to evaluate whole-brain functional connectivity relationships and the second to specifically delineate distributed network connectivity profiles downstream of primary sensory cortices, to investigate neural reorganization in blind children compared with sighted controls. We also examined the relationship between connectivity changes and neuroplasticity-related gene expression profiles in the cerebral cortex. We observed that multisensory integration areas exhibited enhanced functional connectivity in blind children and that this reorganization was spatially associated with the transcription levels of specific members of the cAMP Response Element Binding protein gene family. Using systems-level analyses, this study advances our understanding of human neuroplasticity and its genetic underpinnings following sensory deprivation.blindness | children | neuroplasticity | functional connectivity | CREB family N europlasticity is an intrinsic ability of the brain to modify and rewire itself following experiences (1). The study of neuroplastic reorganization in blind individuals offers a model through which neuroadaptive processes can be identified. For instance, cross-modal neuroplasticity is a mechanism by which blind individuals recruit visual-related cortices to process sensory information from other perceptual modalities (2-5). In addition to occipital regions, parietal and frontal multimodal integration regions of blind adults are capable of functional connectivity reorganization (6). These brain areas are part of a multimodal integration network that acts as a bridge integrating multisensory functions across cortical regions (7). Our group has previously characterized the hierarchical structure and central position of the multimodal integration network in adult blind subjects (6). Although this finding advances our understanding of how information from primary unimodal cortices is adaptively integrated into higher-order associative areas, it remains unclear if neuroplastic changes within multimodal integration areas also occur in blind children. Furthermore, in addition to clarifying the sites of prominent neuroplastic changes, the biological mechanisms through which neuroplastic alterations occur have yet to be fully elucidated in blind individuals.Concurrent advances in cellular and molecular biology and neuroimaging provide a unique opportunity to explore the interlinked relationships between genes and neural circuits (8). A neuroimaging endophenotype is informative because it is more closely related to the genetic end product than clinical or behavioral phenotypes (9). Thus, examining properties of systemslevel brain organization and cortical gene expression has great potential to expand our understanding of neuroplastic mechanisms, particularly if specific gene expression patt...

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“…For example, it seems natural to ask whether the mechanism of task-specific brain reorganization is limited to the very particular circumstances of prolonged sensory deprivation. Previous studies on visual cortex have already shown that some forms of task-specific recruitment of the visual cortex are possible in nondeprived adults, either after several days of blindfolding (16) or after extensive tactile or auditory training (6,17,18). In their experiment, Benetti et al (2) report a marginally significant trend in the fMRI adaptation effect for faces in hearing participants, suggesting that the temporal voice area may have a similar cross-modal potential for face discrimination in both hearing and deaf subjects.…”

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confidence: 99%