麦戈文脑科学中心学术报告

Title: Early blindness results in developmental plasticity for auditory motion processing within auditory and occipital cortex

Speaker: Fang Jiang, Ph.D.

University of Nevada

Time: June 6 2016 (Mon) 16:00-17:30

Venue: Room 1113, Wang Kezhen Building

Host: Lihan Chen

Abstract: Early blind subjects exhibit enhanced auditory motion processing capacities, which have been previously shown to be accompanied by enhanced BOLD responses to auditory motion within hMT+ and reduced responses within right planum temporale. Here, by comparing BOLD responses to auditory motion in hMT+ and rPT within sighted controls, early blind, late blind, and sight-recovery individuals, we were able to separately examine the effects of developmental and adult visual deprivation within these two areas. We find that both the enhanced auditory motion responses in hMT+ and the reduced functionality in rPT are driven by the absence of visual experience early in life; neither loss nor recovery of vision later in life had a discernable influence on plasticity within these areas. The loss of functionality in rPT implies that the developmental plasticity that occurs as a result of blindness cannot fully be explained by competition between input modalities within deprived areas, but must also include competition across different cortical areas for functional role.

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