U-VIP: Unit for Visually Impaired People, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 16152, Genova, Italy.
IRCCS Mondino Foundation, 27100, Pavia, Italy.
Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2021 Jun;49:100965. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2021.100965. Epub 2021 May 21.
Visual experience is crucial for the development of neural processing. For example, alpha activity development is a vision-dependent mechanism. Indeed, studies report no alpha activity is present in blind adults. Nevertheless, studies have not investigated the developmental trajectory of this activity in infants and children with blindness. Here, we hypothesize that the difference in neural activity of blind compared to sighted subjects is: absent at birth, progressive with age, specifically occipital and linked to a gradual motor impairment. Therefore, we consider spectral power of resting-state EEG and its association with motor impairment indices, in blind subjects and in sighted controls between 0 and 11 years of age. Blind subjects show posterior alpha activity during the first three years of life, although weaker and slower maturing compared to sighted subjects. The first great differentiation between blind and sighted subjects occurs between 3 and 6 years of age. Starting in this period, reduced alpha activity increases the probability of motor impairment in blind subjects, likely because of impaired perception/interaction. These results show that visual experience mediates the neural mechanisms generating alpha oscillations during the first years of life, suggesting that it is a sensitive period for the plasticity of this process.
视觉体验对神经处理的发展至关重要。例如，α 活动的发展是一种依赖视觉的机制。事实上，研究报告称，盲人成年人没有α 活动。然而，研究尚未调查失明婴儿和儿童中这种活动的发展轨迹。在这里，我们假设与视力正常的受试者相比，盲人的神经活动差异为：出生时不存在，随年龄增长而逐渐出现，特别是在枕叶，并与逐渐的运动障碍有关。因此，我们考虑了在 0 至 11 岁的盲人受试者和视力正常的对照组中，静息状态 EEG 的频谱功率及其与运动障碍指标的关联。盲人受试者在生命的头三年表现出后 alpha 活动，尽管与视力正常的受试者相比，强度较弱且成熟较慢。盲人和视力正常的受试者之间的第一个重要区别发生在 3 到 6 岁之间。从这个时期开始，减少的 alpha 活动增加了盲人运动障碍的可能性，可能是因为感知/互动受损。这些结果表明，视觉体验介导了生命最初几年产生 alpha 振荡的神经机制，表明这是该过程可塑性的敏感时期。
