National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, No. 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100875, China.
School of Chinese as a Second Language, Peking University, No. 5 Yiheyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100871, China.
Cereb Cortex. 2023 Dec 9;33(24):11526-11540. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhad385.
The occipital cortex is the visual processing center in the mammalian brain. An unanswered scientific question pertains to the impact of congenital visual deprivation on the development of various profiles within the occipital network. To address this issue, we recruited 30 congenitally blind participants (8 children and 22 adults) as well as 31 sighted participants (10 children and 21 adults). Our investigation focused on identifying the gray matter regions and white matter connections within the occipital cortex, alongside behavioral measures, that demonstrated different developmental patterns between blind and sighted individuals. We discovered significant developmental changes in the gray matter regions and white matter connections of the occipital cortex among blind individuals from childhood to adulthood, in comparison with sighted individuals. Moreover, some of these structures exhibited cognitive functional reorganization. Specifically, in blind adults, the posterior occipital regions (left calcarine fissure and right middle occipital gyrus) showed reorganization of tactile perception, and the forceps major tracts were reorganized for braille reading. These plastic changes in blind individuals may be attributed to experience-dependent neuronal apoptosis, pruning, and myelination. These findings provide valuable insights into the longitudinal neuroanatomical and cognitive functional plasticity of the occipital network following long-term visual deprivation.
枕叶皮层是哺乳动物大脑中的视觉处理中心。一个尚未解决的科学问题是先天性视觉剥夺对视皮层网络中各种特征的发展的影响。为了解决这个问题，我们招募了 30 名先天性失明的参与者（8 名儿童和 22 名成年人）和 31 名视力正常的参与者（10 名儿童和 21 名成年人）。我们的研究重点是确定枕叶皮层内的灰质区域和白质连接，以及行为测量，这些测量结果表明了盲人和视力正常者之间不同的发育模式。我们发现，与视力正常者相比，失明者从儿童期到成年期，枕叶皮层的灰质区域和白质连接发生了显著的发育变化。此外，其中一些结构表现出认知功能的重组。具体来说，在成年盲人中，后枕叶区域（左侧距状裂和右侧中枕叶回）表现出触觉感知的重组，而主要的手斧纤维束则为盲文阅读进行了重组。这些盲人的可塑性变化可能归因于经验依赖性的神经元凋亡、修剪和髓鞘形成。这些发现为长期视觉剥夺后枕叶网络的纵向神经解剖和认知功能可塑性提供了有价值的见解。
