title: Reading in the dark: neural correlates and cross-modal plasticity for learning to read entire words without visual experience.
abstract: Cognitive neuroscience has long attempted to determine the ways in which cortical selectivity develops, and the impact of nature vs. nurture on it. Congenital blindness (CB) offers a unique opportunity to test this question as the brains of blind individuals develop without visual experience. Here we approach this question through the reading network. Several areas in the visual cortex have been implicated as part of the reading network, and one of the main ones among them is the VWFA, which is selective to the form of letters and words. But what happens in the CB brain? On the one hand, it has been shown that cross-modal plasticity leads to the recruitment of occipital areas, including the VWFA, for linguistic tasks. On the other hand, we have recently demonstrated VWFA activity for letters in contrast to other visual categories when the information is provided via other senses such as touch or audition. Which of these tasks is more dominant? By which mechanism does the CB brain process reading? Using fMRI and visual-to-auditory sensory substitution which transfers the topographical features of the letters we compare reading with semantic and scrambled conditions in a group of CB. We found activation in early auditory and visual cortices during the early processing phase (letter), while the later phase (word) showed VWFA and bilateral dorsal-intraparietal activations for words. This further supports the notion that many visual regions in general, even early visual areas, also maintain a predilection for task processing even when the modality is variable and in spite of putative lifelong linguistic cross-modal plasticity. Furthermore, we find that the VWFA is recruited preferentially for letter and word form, while it was not recruited, and even exhibited deactivation, for an immediately subsequent semantic task suggesting that despite only short sensory substitution experience orthographic task processing can dominate semantic processing in the VWFA. On a wider scope, this implies that at least in some cases cross-modal plasticity which enables the recruitment of areas for new tasks may be dominated by sensory independent task specific activation.
authors.affiliation: The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC), The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91220, Israel; Department of Medical Neurobiology, The Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada, Faculty of Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91220, Israel.
authors.forename: Nadine
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sigalov
authors.affiliation: The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC), The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91220, Israel; Department of Medical Neurobiology, The Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada, Faculty of Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91220, Israel.
authors.forename: Shachar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Maidenbaum
authors.affiliation: The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC), The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91220, Israel; Department of Medical Neurobiology, The Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada, Faculty of Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91220, Israel; Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, Institut de la Vision, UMR_S 968, Paris F-75012, France. Electronic address: amir.amedi@ekmd.huji.ac.il.
authors.forename: Amir
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Amedi
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001766:Blindness / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D016014:Linear Models; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D011932:Reading; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000098:blood supply / Q000503:physiopathology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014825:Vocabulary; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: Category selectivity; Congenital blindness; Neural plasticity; Reading; Sensory substitution