Repetition learning of vibrotactile temporal sequences: An fMRI study in blind and sighted individuals

Burton, Harold; Agato, Alvin; Sinclair, Robert J.

doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2011.11.039

Cited by 4 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 86 publications

(126 reference statements)

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“…In the present cohort, differences in rs-fcMRI were found in areas associated with auditory processing, executive function and memory formation between children with UHL and NH controls (Tibbetts et al, 2011 ). Since the neuroanatomical microstructure remains intact, it is possible that these underutilized auditory areas have been recruited by other systems in the brain, such as noted by Obretenova et al ( 2010 ), or analogously as has been shown to occur in the occipital cortex of blind subjects (Burton et al, 2012 ). An early-deaf and early-blind individual who relied on tactile communication modalities was found to have enhanced occipital connectivity as well greater activation of superior temporal and inferior frontal language regions on fMRI relative to a normally sighted and hearing person.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diffusion tensor imaging in children with unilateral hearing loss: a pilot study

Rachakonda

Shimony

Coalson

et al. 2014

Front. Syst. Neurosci.

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Objective: Language acquisition was assumed to proceed normally in children with unilateral hearing loss (UHL) since they have one functioning ear. However, children with UHL score poorly on speech-language tests and have higher rates of educational problems compared to normal hearing (NH) peers. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is an imaging modality used to measure microstructural integrity of brain white matter. The purpose of this pilot study was to investigate differences in fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) in hearing- and non-hearing-related structures in the brain between children with UHL and their NH siblings.Study Design: Prospective observational cohort.Setting: Academic medical center.Subjects and Methods: Sixty one children were recruited, tested and imaged. Twenty nine children with severe-to-profound UHL were compared to 20 siblings with NH using IQ and oral language testing, and MRI with DTI. Twelve children had inadequate MRI data. Parents provided demographic data and indicated whether children had a need for an individualized educational program (IEP) or speech therapy (ST). DTI parameters were measured in auditory and non-auditory regions of interest (ROIs). Between-group comparisons were evaluated with non-parametric tests.Results: Lower FA of left lateral lemniscus was observed for children with UHL compared to their NH siblings, as well as trends toward differences in other auditory and non-auditory regions. Correlation analyses showed associations between several DTI parameters and outcomes in children with UHL. Regression analyses revealed relationships between educational outcome variables and several DTI parameters, which may provide clinically useful information for guidance of speech therapy.Discussion/Conclusion: Our data suggests that white matter microstructural patterns in several brain regions are preserved despite unilateral rather than bilateral auditory input which contrasts with findings in patients with bilateral hearing loss.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diffusion tensor imaging in children with unilateral hearing loss: a pilot study

Rachakonda

Shimony

Coalson

et al. 2014

Front. Syst. Neurosci.

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“…In addition, previous studies (for review, see Schacter et al, 2007 ) indicated that the IFG responds invariantly to the perceptual features of stimuli and showed significant response reduction effects in both visual and auditory priming studies. Moreover, a recent study (Burton et al, 2012 ) using repeated vibrotactile stimuli also found decreased activation in the left IFG. Therefore, the reduced activation of the left IFG obtained in our study is consistent with the previous findings and expands on them with tactile spatial stimuli.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…During the past two decades, many neuroscientists have focused on the neural processes underlying the priming effect, establishing that priming is generally associated with decreased cortical activity (for review, see Schacter et al, 2007 ). Although this evidence was mostly obtained from visual and auditory priming studies, a recent study (Burton et al, 2012 ) that used repeated vibrotactile stimuli confirmed the priming effect in tactile modality. Specifically, Burton et al ( 2012 ) found activity reductions in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex but not in the SI of sighted subjects after repeated trials.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Although this evidence was mostly obtained from visual and auditory priming studies, a recent study (Burton et al, 2012 ) that used repeated vibrotactile stimuli confirmed the priming effect in tactile modality. Specifically, Burton et al ( 2012 ) found activity reductions in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex but not in the SI of sighted subjects after repeated trials.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Therefore, we hypothesized that the priming of tactile spatial stimuli would lead to reduced activation in regions of the common fronto-parietal circuit, such as IFG and mFG. In contrast with repeated vibrotactile stimuli (Burton et al, 2012 ), the brain activation may also decrease in the right PPC, which is functionally specific for tactile spatial processing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

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Tactile priming modulates the activation of the fronto-parietal circuit during tactile angle match and non-match processing: an fMRI study

Yang

Kunita

et al. 2014

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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The repetition of a stimulus task reduces the neural activity within certain cortical regions responsible for working memory (WM) processing. Although previous evidence has shown that repeated vibrotactile stimuli reduce the activation in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, whether the repeated tactile spatial stimuli triggered the priming effect correlated with the same cortical region remains unclear. Therefore, we used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a delayed match-to-sample task to investigate the contributions of the priming effect to tactile spatial WM processing. Fourteen healthy volunteers were asked to encode three tactile angle stimuli during the encoding phase and one tactile angle stimulus during the recognition phase. Then, they answered whether the last angle stimulus was presented during the encoding phase. As expected, both the Match and Non-Match tasks activated a similar cerebral network. The critical new finding was decreased brain activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), the right posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and bilateral medial frontal gyri (mFG) for the match task compared to the Non-Match task. Therefore, we suggest that the tactile priming engaged repetition suppression mechanisms during tactile angle matching, and this process decreased the activation of the fronto-parietal circuit, including IFG, mFG and PPC.

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The implicit learning of metrical and non-metrical rhythms in blind and sighted adults

Carrara-Augustenborg

Schultz

2017

Psychological Research

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Forming temporal expectancies plays a crucial role in our survival as it allows us to identify the occurrence of temporal deviants that might signal potential dangers. The dynamic attending theory suggests that temporal expectancies are formed more readily for rhythms that imply a beat (i.e., metrical rhythms) compared to those that do not (i.e., nonmetrical rhythms). Moreover, metrical frameworks can be used to detect temporal deviants. Although several studies have demonstrated that congenital or early blindness correlates with modality-specific neural changes that reflect compensatory mechanisms, few have examined whether blind individuals show a learning advantage for auditory rhythms and whether learning can occur unintentionally and without awareness, that is, implicitly. We compared blind to sighted controls in their ability to implicitly learn metrical and nonmetrical auditory rhythms. We reasoned that the loss of sight in blindness might lead to improved sensitivity to rhythms and predicted that the blind learn rhythms more readily than the sighted. We further hypothesized that metrical rhythms are learned more readily than nonmetrical rhythms. Results partially confirmed our predictions; the blind group learned nonmetrical rhythms more readily than the sighted group but the blind group learned metrical rhythms less readily than the sighted group. Only the sighted group learned metrical rhythms more readily than nonmetrical rhythms. The blind group demonstrated awareness of the nonmetrical rhythms while learning was implicit for all other conditions. Findings suggest that improved deviant-sensitivity might have provided the blind group a learning advantage for nonmetrical rhythms. Future research could explore the plastic changes that affect deviance-detection and stimulus-specific adaptation in blindness.

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Repetition learning of vibrotactile temporal sequences: An fMRI study in blind and sighted individuals

Cited by 4 publications

References 86 publications

Diffusion tensor imaging in children with unilateral hearing loss: a pilot study

Diffusion tensor imaging in children with unilateral hearing loss: a pilot study

Tactile priming modulates the activation of the fronto-parietal circuit during tactile angle match and non-match processing: an fMRI study

The implicit learning of metrical and non-metrical rhythms in blind and sighted adults

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