A Sensitive Period for Language in the Visual Cortex: Distinct Patterns of Plasticity in Congenitally versus Late Blind Adults

Autor/inn/en	Bedny, Marina; Pascual-Leone, Alvaro; Dravida, Swethasri; Saxe, Rebecca
Titel	A Sensitive Period for Language in the Visual Cortex: Distinct Patterns of Plasticity in Congenitally versus Late Blind Adults
Quelle	In: Brain and Language, 122 (2012) 3, S.162-170 (9 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0093-934X
DOI	10.1016/j.bandl.2011.10.005
Schlagwörter	Evidence; Sentences; Blindness; Brain Hemisphere Functions; Language Processing; Diagnostic Tests; Developmental Stages; Children; Task Analysis; Control Groups; Speech; Auditory Stimuli + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Evidenz; Sentence analysis; Satzanalyse; Blindheit; Sprachverarbeitung; Diagnostic test; Diagnostischer Test; Child; Kind; Kinder; Aufgabenanalyse; Speaking; Sprechen; Auditive Stimulation
Abstract	Recent evidence suggests that blindness enables visual circuits to contribute to language processing. We examined whether this dramatic functional plasticity has a sensitive period. BOLD fMRI signal was measured in congenitally blind, late blind (blindness onset 9-years-old or later) and sighted participants while they performed a sentence comprehension task. In a control condition, participants listened to backwards speech and made match/non-match to sample judgments. In both congenitally and late blind participants BOLD signal increased in bilateral foveal-pericalcarine cortex during response preparation, irrespective of whether the stimulus was a sentence or backwards speech. However, left occipital areas (pericalcarine, extrastriate, fusiform and lateral) responded more to sentences than backwards speech only in congenitally blind people. We conclude that age of blindness onset constrains the non-visual functions of occipital cortex: while plasticity is present in both congenitally and late blind individuals, recruitment of visual circuits for language depends on blindness during childhood. (Contains 3 figures, 2 supplementary figures, 3 tables and 1 supplementary data.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10