Crossmodal Recruitment of the Ventral Visual Stream in Congenital Blindness
Joint Authors
Ptito, Maurice
Kupers, Ron
Matteau, Isabelle
Zhi Wang, Arthur
Paulson, Olaf B.
Siebner, Hartwig R.
Source
Issue
Vol. 2012, Issue 2012 (31 Dec. 2012), pp.1-9, 9 p.
Publisher
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
Publication Date
2012-06-14
Country of Publication
Egypt
No. of Pages
9
Main Subjects
Abstract EN
We used functional MRI (fMRI) to test the hypothesis that blind subjects recruit the ventral visual stream during nonhaptic tactile-form recognition.
Congenitally blind and blindfolded sighted control subjects were scanned after they had been trained during four consecutive days to perform a tactile-form recognition task with the tongue display unit (TDU).
Both groups learned the task at the same rate.
In line with our hypothesis, the fMRI data showed that during nonhaptic shape recognition, blind subjects activated large portions of the ventral visual stream, including the cuneus, precuneus, inferotemporal (IT), cortex, lateral occipital tactile vision area (LOtv), and fusiform gyrus.
Control subjects activated area LOtv and precuneus but not cuneus, IT and fusiform gyrus.
These results indicate that congenitally blind subjects recruit key regions in the ventral visual pathway during nonhaptic tactile shape discrimination.
The activation of LOtv by nonhaptic tactile shape processing in blind and sighted subjects adds further support to the notion that this area subserves an abstract or supramodal representation of shape.
Together with our previous findings, our data suggest that the segregation of the efferent projections of the primary visual cortex into a dorsal and ventral visual stream is preserved in individuals blind from birth.
American Psychological Association (APA)
Ptito, Maurice& Matteau, Isabelle& Zhi Wang, Arthur& Paulson, Olaf B.& Siebner, Hartwig R.& Kupers, Ron. 2012. Crossmodal Recruitment of the Ventral Visual Stream in Congenital Blindness. Neural Plasticity،Vol. 2012, no. 2012, pp.1-9.
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-1029904
Modern Language Association (MLA)
Ptito, Maurice…[et al.]. Crossmodal Recruitment of the Ventral Visual Stream in Congenital Blindness. Neural Plasticity No. 2012 (2012), pp.1-9.
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-1029904
American Medical Association (AMA)
Ptito, Maurice& Matteau, Isabelle& Zhi Wang, Arthur& Paulson, Olaf B.& Siebner, Hartwig R.& Kupers, Ron. Crossmodal Recruitment of the Ventral Visual Stream in Congenital Blindness. Neural Plasticity. 2012. Vol. 2012, no. 2012, pp.1-9.
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-1029904
Data Type
Journal Articles
Language
English
Notes
Includes bibliographical references
Record ID
BIM-1029904