Alfaro Arantxa, Bernabeu Ángela, Agulló Carlos, Parra Jaime, Fernández Eduardo
CIBER-BBN Madrid, Spain ; Hospital Vega Baja Orihuela, Spain.
Department of Magnetic Resonance, INSCANER S.L. Alicante, Spain.
Front Syst Neurosci. 2015 Apr 14;9:56. doi: 10.3389/fnsys.2015.00056. eCollection 2015.
Sensory substitution devices (SSDs) are providing new ways for improving or replacing sensory abilities that have been lost due to disease or injury, and at the same time offer unprecedented opportunities to address how the nervous system could lead to an augmentation of its capacities. In this work we have evaluated a color-blind subject using a new visual-to-auditory SSD device called "Eyeborg", that allows colors to be perceived as sounds. We used a combination of neuroimaging techniques including Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) and proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ((1)H-MRS) to study potential brain plasticity in this subject. Our results suggest that after 8 years of continuous use of this device there could be significant adaptive and compensatory changes within the brain. In particular, we found changes in functional neural patterns, structural connectivity and cortical topography at the visual and auditive cortex of the Eyeborg user in comparison with a control population. Although at the moment we cannot claim that the continuous use of the Eyeborg is the only reason for these findings, our results may shed further light on potential brain changes associated with the use of other SSDs. This could help to better understand how the brain adapts to several pathologies and uncover adaptive resources such as cross-modal representations. We expect that the precise understanding of these changes will have clear implications for rehabilitative training, device development and for more efficient programs for people with disabilities.
感官替代设备（SSDs）为改善或替代因疾病或损伤而丧失的感官能力提供了新途径，同时也为探讨神经系统如何增强其能力带来了前所未有的机遇。在这项研究中，我们使用一种名为“Eyeborg”的新型视觉到听觉的SSD设备对一名色盲受试者进行了评估，该设备能让颜色被感知为声音。我们结合了包括功能磁共振成像（fMRI）、扩散张量成像（DTI）和质子磁共振波谱（（1）H-MRS）在内的多种神经成像技术，来研究该受试者潜在的大脑可塑性。我们的研究结果表明，在持续使用该设备8年后，大脑内部可能会出现显著的适应性和代偿性变化。特别是，与对照组相比，我们在Eyeborg用户的视觉和听觉皮层发现了功能神经模式、结构连接性和皮质地形图的变化。虽然目前我们不能断言持续使用Eyeborg是这些发现的唯一原因，但我们的研究结果可能会进一步揭示与使用其他SSD相关的潜在大脑变化。这有助于更好地理解大脑如何适应多种病理状况，并发现诸如跨模态表征等适应性资源。我们预计，对这些变化的精确理解将对康复训练、设备开发以及为残疾人制定更有效的方案具有明确的意义。
