rTMS of the occipital cortex abolishes Braille reading and repetition priming in blind subjects.
To study the functional involvement of the visual cortex in Braille reading, we applied repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over midoccipital (MOC) and primary somatosensory (SI) cortex in blind subjects. After rTMS of MOC, but not SI, subjects made significantly more errors and showed an abolishment of the improvement in reading speed following repetitive presentation of the same word list, suggesting a role of the visual cortex in repetition priming in the blind.
Kupers
R
R
PET Unit and Department of Surgical Pathophysiology, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark. ron@pet.rh.dk
Pappens
M
M
de Noordhout
A Maertens
AM
Schoenen
J
J
Ptito
M
M
Fumal
A
A
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000328:Adult; D001766:Blindness / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D003463:Cues; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005108:Extinction, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011932:Reading; D012682:Sensory Aids; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014110:Touch; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*