Visual Motion Area MT+/V5 Responds to Auditory Motion in Human Sight-Recovery Subjects.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we found that cortical visual motion area MT+/V5 responded to auditory motion in two rare subjects who had been blind since early childhood and whose vision was partially recovered in adulthood. Visually normal control subjects did not show similar auditory responses. These auditory responses in MT+ were specific to motion compared with other complex auditory stimuli including frequency sweeps and speech. Thus, MT+ developed motion-specific responses to nonvisual input, suggesting that cross-modal plasticity can be influenced by the normal functional specialization of a cortical region. Regarding sight recovery after early blindness, our results further demonstrate that cross-modal responses coexist with regained visual responses within the visual cortex.
Saenz
Melissa
M
Computation and Neural Systems, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA. saenz@caltech.edu
Lewis
Lindsay B
LB
Huth
Alexander G
AG
Fine
Ione
I
Koch
Christof
C
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001766:Blindness / Q000503:physiopathology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D015588:Observer Variation; D020127:Recovery of Function / Q000502:physiology*; D013017:Sound Localization / Q000502:physiology; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology