[Brain neuroplasticity in occipital areas in blind teenagers].
BACKGROUND
Neuroplasticity is a process by which neurons increase their connectivity with other neurons in a stable fashion as a consequence of experience, learning and both sensitive and cognitive stimulation. Different authors have shown a huge process of brain plasticity in blind subjects towards other sensorial areas, mainly auditive and visual ones. From an anatomical standpoint many data show significant differences in blind subjects brains, mainly in visual pathways and structures as a result of lack of activity on those areas. This brings a lesser neuroplasticity and, therefore, a decrease in structural volumes. They have also found differences in subcortical structures volumes related to vision, such as splenium or corpus callosum istmus.


METHODS
An adolescent was administered passive tactile stimulation with an 1,500 taxels stimulator. This was carried out daily for an hour, for three months, and stimulation consisted of vertical, horizontal and oblique lines. The results obtained in an adolescent indicate a clear progression of EEG activity from tactile sensory parietal areas to visual occipital ones as stimulation progresses.


CONCLUSIONS
Therefore one can speculate if systematic and organized repetition of tactile stimuli in blind subjects leads to a greater neuroplasticity which expands towards occipital areas, largely responsible for human vision.
Ortiz
T
T
Departamento de Psiquiatría, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Espana. tortiz@med.ucm.es
Poch-Broto
J
J
Requena
C
C
Santos
J M
JM
Martínez
A
A
Barcia-Albacar
J A
JA
D000293:Adolescent; D001766:Blindness / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004569:Electroencephalography; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D014110:Touch / Q000502:physiology