2024/01/22 by Suddha Sourav, Ramesh Kekunnaya, Davide Bottari +3 · 1 voice
Neuroscience · Psychology · #Tactile and Sensory Interactions #Multisensory perception and integration #Visual perception and processing mechanisms
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s42003-023-05749-3
openalex publication_date 2024/01/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Neuroscientific research has consistently shown more extensive non-visual activity in the visual cortex of congenitally blind humans compared to sighted controls; a phenomenon known as crossmodal plasticity. Whether or not crossmodal activation of the visual cortex retracts if sight can be restored is still unknown. The present study, involving a rare group of sight-recovery individuals who were born pattern vision blind, employed visual event-related potentials to investigate persisting crossmodal modulation of the initial visual cortical processing stages. Here we report that the earliest, stimulus-driven retinotopic visual cortical activity (<100 ms) was suppressed in a spatially specific manner in sight-recovery individuals when concomitant sounds accompanied visual stimulation. In contrast, sounds did not modulate the earliest visual cortical response in two groups of typically sighted controls, nor in a third control group of sight-recovery individuals who had suffered a transient phase of later (rather than congenital) visual impairment. These results provide strong evidence for persisting crossmodal activity in the visual cortex after sight recovery following a period of congenital visual deprivation. Based on the time course of this modulation, we speculate on a role of exuberant crossmodal thalamic input which may arise during a sensitive phase of brain development.