2022/07/08 by Guillermina López-Bendito, Guillermina López‐Bendito, Mar Aníbal-Martínez +1
Neuroscience · Psychology · #Cognitive psychology #Developmental plasticity #Modal #Modalities #Multisensory perception and integration #Neural dynamics and brain function #Neuroplasticity #Neuroscience #Plasticity #Psychology #Sensory deprivation #Sensory system #Stimulus modality #Structural plasticity #Tactile and Sensory Interactions
paper · pdf · doi:10.1146/annurev-neuro-111020-104222
openalex publication_date 2022/07/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
Unimodal sensory loss leads to structural and functional changes in both deprived and nondeprived brain circuits. This process is broadly known as cross-modal plasticity. The evidence available indicates that cross-modal changes underlie the enhanced performances of the spared sensory modalities in deprived subjects. Sensory experience is a fundamental driver of cross-modal plasticity, yet there is evidence from early-visually deprived models supporting an additional role for experience-independent factors. These experience-independent factors are expected to act early in development and constrain neuronal plasticity at later stages. Here we review the cross-modal adaptations elicited by congenital or induced visual deprivation prior to vision. In most of these studies, cross-modal adaptations have been addressed at the structural and functional levels. Here, we also appraise recent data regarding behavioral performance in early-visually deprived models. However, further research is needed to explore how circuit reorganization affects their function and what brings about enhanced behavioral performance.