Functional recruitment of visual cortex for sound encoded object identification in the blind.
Individuals using a visual-to-auditory sensory substitution device (SSD) called 'The vOICe' can identify objects in their environment through images encoded by sound. We have shown that identifying objects with this SSD is associated with activation of occipital visual areas. Here, we show that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) delivered to a specific area of occipital cortex (identified by functional MRI) profoundly impairs a blind user's ability to identify objects. rTMS delivered to the same site had no effect on a visual imagery task. The task and site-specific disruptive effect of rTMS in this individual suggests that the cross-modal recruitment of occipital visual areas is functional in nature and critical to the patient's ability to process and decode the image sounds using this SSD.
Merabet
Lotfi B
LB
Department of Neurology, Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA. lmerabet@bidmc.harvard.edu
Battelli
Lorella
L
Obretenova
Souzana
S
Maguire
Sara
S
Meijer
Peter
P
Pascual-Leone
Alvaro
A
D000465:Algorithms; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001766:Blindness / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008875:Middle Aged; D010719:Phosphenes; D011999:Recruitment, Neurophysiological; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*