Recruitment of the middle temporal area by tactile motion in congenital blindness

Maurice Ptito; Isabelle Matteau; Albert Gjedde; Ron Kupers

doi:10.1097/WNR.0b013e3283279909

Recruitment of the middle temporal area by tactile motion in congenital blindness

Maurice Ptito, Isabelle Matteau, Albert Gjedde, Ron Kupers

Department of Neuroscience

44 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We used positron emission tomography to investigate whether tactile motion discrimination activates the dorsal visual stream in congenitally blind (CB) participants compared with sighted controls. The tactile stimuli consisted of either static dots, dots moving coherently in one of two possible directions, or in random directions. Although CB and sighted controls performed equally well on the motion discrimination task, only CB showed increased activation in the right middle temporal area. In addition, CB also activated other visual areas including the cuneus and extrastriate area V3. These results indicate that the dorsal visual pathway is activated by tactile motion stimuli in CB, therefore providing additional support for the cross-modal plasticity hypothesis.

Original language	English
Journal	NeuroReport
Volume	20
Issue number	6
Pages (from-to)	543-547
Number of pages	4
ISSN	0959-4965
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1097/WNR.0b013e3283279909
Publication status	Published - 2009

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title = "Recruitment of the middle temporal area by tactile motion in congenital blindness",

abstract = "We used positron emission tomography to investigate whether tactile motion discrimination activates the dorsal visual stream in congenitally blind (CB) participants compared with sighted controls. The tactile stimuli consisted of either static dots, dots moving coherently in one of two possible directions, or in random directions. Although CB and sighted controls performed equally well on the motion discrimination task, only CB showed increased activation in the right middle temporal area. In addition, CB also activated other visual areas including the cuneus and extrastriate area V3. These results indicate that the dorsal visual pathway is activated by tactile motion stimuli in CB, therefore providing additional support for the cross-modal plasticity hypothesis.",

author = "Maurice Ptito and Isabelle Matteau and Albert Gjedde and Ron Kupers",

note = "Keywords: Adult; Blindness; Humans; Middle Aged; Motion Perception; Physical Stimulation; Positron-Emission Tomography; Temporal Lobe; Touch Perception; Visual Pathways; Young Adult",

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AU - Ptito, Maurice

AU - Matteau, Isabelle

AU - Gjedde, Albert

AU - Kupers, Ron

N1 - Keywords: Adult; Blindness; Humans; Middle Aged; Motion Perception; Physical Stimulation; Positron-Emission Tomography; Temporal Lobe; Touch Perception; Visual Pathways; Young Adult

PY - 2009

Y1 - 2009

N2 - We used positron emission tomography to investigate whether tactile motion discrimination activates the dorsal visual stream in congenitally blind (CB) participants compared with sighted controls. The tactile stimuli consisted of either static dots, dots moving coherently in one of two possible directions, or in random directions. Although CB and sighted controls performed equally well on the motion discrimination task, only CB showed increased activation in the right middle temporal area. In addition, CB also activated other visual areas including the cuneus and extrastriate area V3. These results indicate that the dorsal visual pathway is activated by tactile motion stimuli in CB, therefore providing additional support for the cross-modal plasticity hypothesis.

AB - We used positron emission tomography to investigate whether tactile motion discrimination activates the dorsal visual stream in congenitally blind (CB) participants compared with sighted controls. The tactile stimuli consisted of either static dots, dots moving coherently in one of two possible directions, or in random directions. Although CB and sighted controls performed equally well on the motion discrimination task, only CB showed increased activation in the right middle temporal area. In addition, CB also activated other visual areas including the cuneus and extrastriate area V3. These results indicate that the dorsal visual pathway is activated by tactile motion stimuli in CB, therefore providing additional support for the cross-modal plasticity hypothesis.

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Recruitment of the middle temporal area by tactile motion in congenital blindness

Abstract

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