Institute of Neuroscience-IoNS, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.
PLoS One. 2013 Aug 14;8(8):e71907. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0071907. eCollection 2013.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in ten early blind humans, we found robust occipital activation during two odor-processing tasks (discrimination or categorization of fruit and flower odors), as well as during control auditory-verbal conditions (discrimination or categorization of fruit and flower names). We also found evidence for reorganization and specialization of the ventral part of the occipital cortex, with dissociation according to stimulus modality: the right fusiform gyrus was most activated during olfactory conditions while part of the left ventral lateral occipital complex showed a preference for auditory-verbal processing. Only little occipital activation was found in sighted subjects, but the same right-olfactory/left-auditory-verbal hemispheric lateralization was found overall in their brain. This difference between the groups was mirrored by superior performance of the blind in various odor-processing tasks. Moreover, the level of right fusiform gyrus activation during the olfactory conditions was highly correlated with individual scores in a variety of odor recognition tests, indicating that the additional occipital activation may play a functional role in odor processing.
我们使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）对 10 位早期失明的人类进行了研究，发现他们在进行两种气味处理任务（水果和花香的辨别或分类）以及控制听觉-言语条件（水果和花香名称的辨别或分类）时，大脑枕叶区域会出现强烈的激活。我们还发现了枕叶腹侧部分重组和专业化的证据，根据刺激模式存在分离：右侧梭状回在嗅觉条件下最为活跃，而左侧腹外侧枕叶复合体的一部分则表现出对听觉-言语处理的偏好。在有视力的受试者中仅发现了少量的枕叶激活，但总体而言，他们大脑的偏侧化呈现出右侧嗅觉/左侧听觉-言语的模式。这种组间差异反映在盲人在各种气味处理任务中的表现优于有视力的人。此外，在嗅觉条件下右侧梭状回的激活水平与各种气味识别测试中的个体得分高度相关，这表明额外的枕叶激活可能在气味处理中发挥了功能作用。
