Functional relevance of cross-modal plasticity in blind humans

Leonardo G. Cohen (), Pablo Celnik, Alvaro Pascual-Leone, Brian Corwell, Lala Faiz, James Dambrosia, Manabu Honda, Norihiro Sadato, Christian Gerloff, M. Dolores Catala´ and Mark Hallett
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Leonardo G. Cohen: Human Cortical Physiology Unit National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health
Pablo Celnik: Human Cortical Physiology Unit National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health
Alvaro Pascual-Leone: Instituto Cajal, Universidad de Valencia
Brian Corwell: Human Cortical Physiology Unit National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health
Lala Faiz: Human Cortical Physiology Unit National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health
James Dambrosia: Biometry and Field Studies Branch, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health
Manabu Honda: Human Cortical Physiology Unit National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health
Norihiro Sadato: Biomedical Imaging Research Center, Fukui Medical School
Christian Gerloff: Human Cortical Physiology Unit National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health
M. Dolores Catala´: Instituto Cajal, Universidad de Valencia
Mark Hallett: Human Cortical Physiology Unit National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health

Nature, 1997, vol. 389, issue 6647, 180-183

Abstract: Abstract Functional imaging studies of people who were blind from an early age have revealed that their primary visual cortex can be activated by Braille reading and other tactile discrimination tasks1. Other studies have also shown that visual cortical areas can be activated by somatosensory input in blind subjects but not those with sight2,3,4,5,6,7. The significance of this cross-modal plasticity is unclear, however, as it is not known whether the visual cortex can process somatosensory information in a functionally relevant way. To address this issue, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation to disrupt the function of different cortical areas in people who were blind from an early age as they identified Braille or embossed Roman letters. Transient stimulation of the occipital (visual) cortex induced errors in both tasks and distorted the tactile perceptions of blind subjects. In contrast, occipital stimulation had no effect on tactile performance in normal-sighted subjects, whereas similar stimulation is known to disrupt their visual performance. We conclude that blindness from an early age can cause the visual cortex to be recruited to a role in somatosensory processing. We propose that this cross-modal plasticity may account in part for the superior tactile perceptual abilities of blind subjects.

Date: 1997
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DOI: 10.1038/38278

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