title: Crossmodal plasticity in the fusiform gyrus of late blind individuals during voice recognition.
abstract: Blind individuals are trained in identifying other people through voices. In congenitally blind adults the anterior fusiform gyrus has been shown to be active during voice recognition. Such crossmodal changes have been associated with a superiority of blind adults in voice perception. The key question of the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was whether visual deprivation that occurs in adulthood is followed by similar adaptive changes of the voice identification system. Late blind individuals and matched sighted participants were tested in a priming paradigm, in which two voice stimuli were subsequently presented. The prime (S1) and the target (S2) were either from the same speaker (person-congruent voices) or from two different speakers (person-incongruent voices). Participants had to classify the S2 as either coming from an old or a young person. Only in late blind but not in matched sighted controls, the activation in the anterior fusiform gyrus was modulated by voice identity: late blind volunteers showed an increase of the BOLD signal in response to person-incongruent compared with person-congruent trials. These results suggest that the fusiform gyrus adapts to input of a new modality even in the mature brain and thus demonstrate an adult type of crossmodal plasticity.
authors.affiliation: Biological Psychology and Neuropsychology, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany; Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany. Electronic address: cordula.hoelig@uni-hamburg.de.
authors.forename: Cordula
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hölig
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Föcker
authors.affiliation: Biological Psychology and Neuropsychology, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Best
authors.affiliation: Biological Psychology and Neuropsychology, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Brigitte
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Röder
authors.affiliation: Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Büchel
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001766:Blindness / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D019987:Persons with Visual Disabilities
keywords: Late blind; Neuroimaging; Person recognition; Plasticity; Voice