Early auditory processing in area V5/MT+ of the congenitally blind brain.
Previous imaging studies of congenital blindness have studied individuals with heterogeneous causes of blindness, which may influence the nature and extent of cross-modal plasticity. Here, we scanned a homogeneous group of blind people with bilateral congenital anophthalmia, a condition in which both eyes fail to develop, and, as a result, the visual pathway is not stimulated by either light or retinal waves. This model of congenital blindness presents an opportunity to investigate the effects of very early visual deafferentation on the functional organization of the brain. In anophthalmic animals, the occipital cortex receives direct subcortical auditory input. We hypothesized that this pattern of subcortical reorganization ought to result in a topographic mapping of auditory frequency information in the occipital cortex of anophthalmic people. Using functional MRI, we examined auditory-evoked activity to pure tones of high, medium, and low frequencies. Activity in the superior temporal cortex was significantly reduced in anophthalmic compared with sighted participants. In the occipital cortex, a region corresponding to the cytoarchitectural area V5/MT+ was activated in the anophthalmic participants but not in sighted controls. Whereas previous studies in the blind indicate that this cortical area is activated to auditory motion, our data show it is also active for trains of pure tone stimuli and in some anophthalmic participants shows a topographic mapping (tonotopy). Therefore, this region appears to be performing early sensory processing, possibly served by direct subcortical input from the pulvinar to V5/MT+.
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3UD, United Kingdom, Functional MRI of the Brain Centre, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, OX3 9DU, United Kingdom, and Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, OX3 0BP, United Kingdom.
Kate E
KE
Watkins
Timothy J
TJ
Shakespeare
M Clare
MC
O'Donoghue
Iona
I
Alexander
Nicola
N
Ragge
Alan
A
Cowey
Holly
H
Bridge
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000853:Anophthalmos / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001766:Blindness / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult