Impact of a transient neonatal visual deprivation on the development of the ventral occipito-temporal cortex in humans

Stefania Mattioni (), Mohamed Rezk, Xiaoqing Gao, Junghyun Nam, Zhong-Xu Liu, Remi Gau, Valérie Goffaux, Andrea I. Costantino, Hans Beeck, Terri Lewis, Daphne Maurer and Olivier Collignon ()
Additional contact information
Stefania Mattioni: UGent
Mohamed Rezk: UCLouvain
Xiaoqing Gao: Zhejiang University
Junghyun Nam: University of Toronto
Zhong-Xu Liu: University of Michigan-Dearborn
Remi Gau: UCLouvain
Valérie Goffaux: UCLouvain
Andrea I. Costantino: KU Leuven
Hans Beeck: KU Leuven
Terri Lewis: McMaster University
Daphne Maurer: McMaster University
Olivier Collignon: UCLouvain

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-17

Abstract: Abstract How does sensory experience shape the development of the visual brain? To answer this eluding question, we examine brain responses to visual categories in a rare group of cataract-reversal individuals who experienced a short transient period of early blindness. Encoding of low-level visual properties is impaired in the early visual cortex (EVC) of cataract-reversal participants, whereas categorical responses in downstream ventral occipito-temporal cortex (VOTC) are preserved. In controls, degrading visual input to mimic the visual deficits of cataracts produces cascading disruptions extending from EVC to VOTC, unlike in the cataract group. A deep neural network trained on altered visual input reproduces this dissociation, supporting the brain findings. These results demonstrate that while EVC is permanently affected by early deprivation, categorical coding in VOTC shows resilience, highlighting different sensitive periods for specific brain regions and computations.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-65468-7

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