Ortiz T, Poch-Broto J, Requena C, Santos J M, Martínez A, Barcia-Albacar J A
Departamento de Psiquiatría, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Espana.
Rev Neurol. 2010 Mar 3;50 Suppl 3:S19-23.
Neuroplasticity is a process by which neurons increase their connectivity with other neurons in a stable fashion as a consequence of experience, learning and both sensitive and cognitive stimulation. Different authors have shown a huge process of brain plasticity in blind subjects towards other sensorial areas, mainly auditive and visual ones. From an anatomical standpoint many data show significant differences in blind subjects brains, mainly in visual pathways and structures as a result of lack of activity on those areas. This brings a lesser neuroplasticity and, therefore, a decrease in structural volumes. They have also found differences in subcortical structures volumes related to vision, such as splenium or corpus callosum istmus.
An adolescent was administered passive tactile stimulation with an 1,500 taxels stimulator. This was carried out daily for an hour, for three months, and stimulation consisted of vertical, horizontal and oblique lines. The results obtained in an adolescent indicate a clear progression of EEG activity from tactile sensory parietal areas to visual occipital ones as stimulation progresses.
Therefore one can speculate if systematic and organized repetition of tactile stimuli in blind subjects leads to a greater neuroplasticity which expands towards occipital areas, largely responsible for human vision.
神经可塑性是一个过程，由于经验、学习以及感官和认知刺激，神经元以稳定的方式增加与其他神经元的连接。不同作者已表明，盲人受试者的大脑朝着其他感觉区域，主要是听觉和视觉区域，存在巨大的可塑性过程。从解剖学角度来看，许多数据显示盲人受试者大脑存在显著差异，主要是由于这些区域缺乏活动，导致视觉通路和结构出现差异。这带来了较低的神经可塑性，因此结构体积减小。他们还发现与视觉相关的皮质下结构体积存在差异，如胼胝体压部或胼胝体峡部。
使用一个具有1500个触觉单元的刺激器对一名青少年进行被动触觉刺激。每天进行一小时，持续三个月，刺激包括垂直线、水平线和斜线。在一名青少年身上获得的结果表明，随着刺激的进行，脑电图活动从触觉感觉顶叶区域向视觉枕叶区域有明显进展。
因此，可以推测在盲人受试者中，系统且有组织地重复触觉刺激是否会导致更大的神经可塑性，并向主要负责人类视觉的枕叶区域扩展。
