High metabolic activity in the visual cortex of early blind human subjects.
Glucose metabolism has been studied in the visual cortex of early blind human subjects. In the forebrain of these subjects, regional glucose utilization was the highest in the striate and prestriate cortical areas. Furthermore, this activity was higher than in blindfolded sighted subjects, whether at rest or during an auditory or tactile task. These observations raise the question of the functionality of the blind's visual cortex.
Wanet-Defalque
M C
MC
Laboratoire de Neurophysiologie, University of Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.
Veraart
C
C
De Volder
A
A
Metz
R
R
Michel
C
C
Dooms
G
G
Goffinet
A
A
D001766:Blindness / Q000378:metabolism*; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005947:Glucose / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D012016:Reference Values; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000378:metabolism*
D005947:Glucose