Cortical Plasticity and Olfactory Function in Early Blindness.
Over the last decade, functional brain imaging has provided insight to the maturation processes and has helped elucidate the pathophysiological mechanisms involved in brain plasticity in the absence of vision. In case of congenital blindness, drastic changes occur within the deafferented "visual" cortex that starts receiving and processing non visual inputs, including olfactory stimuli. This functional reorganization of the occipital cortex gives rise to compensatory perceptual and cognitive mechanisms that help blind persons achieve perceptual tasks, leading to superior olfactory abilities in these subjects. This view receives support from psychophysical testing, volumetric measurements and functional brain imaging studies in humans, which are presented here.
Institute of Neuroscience (IoNS), Université catholique de Louvain Brussels, Belgium.
Rodrigo
R
Araneda
Institute of Neuroscience (IoNS), Université catholique de Louvain Brussels, Belgium.
Laurent A
LA
Renier
Institute of Neuroscience (IoNS), Université catholique de LouvainBrussels, Belgium; Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Cliniques Universitaires Saint-LucBrussels, Belgium.
Philippe
P
Rombaux
Laboratorio de Neurociencias, Escuela de Kinesiología, Facultad de Ciencias, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso Valparaíso, Chile.
Isabel
I
Cuevas
Institute of Neuroscience (IoNS), Université catholique de Louvain Brussels, Belgium.
Anne G
AG
De Volder
congenital blindness; cross-modal plasticity; functional neuroimaging; olfaction; olfactory perception; visual deprivation