title: Increased regional homogeneity of blood oxygen level-dependent signals in occipital cortex of early blind individuals.
abstract: Although resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging has shown altered functional connectivity between visual and other brain areas in the early blind individuals, it cannot answer which brain area's local activities are changed. In this study, regional homogeneity, a measure of the homogeneity of the local blood oxygen level-dependent signals, was used for the first time to investigate the changes in the resting-state brain activity in the early blind individuals. Compared with age-matched and sex-matched sighted individuals, the early blind individuals showed increased regional homogeneity only in the occipital areas, which might be explained by the abnormal cortical development and/or experience-dependent plasticity, resulted from an early visual deprivation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China.
authors.forename: Chong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Weilan
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Dawei
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Tianzi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Yunting
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Chunshui
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001766:Blindness / Q000097:blood* / Q000503:physiopathology; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000098:blood supply / Q000254:growth & development*; D010100:Oxygen / Q000502:physiology*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000098:blood supply / Q000254:growth & development*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen