Cross-modal Plasticity of Tactile Perception in Blindness

• Authors: Krish Sathian, Emory University; Randall Stilla, Emory University
• Journal Title: Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience
• Volume: Volume 28, Number 2
• Publisher: IOS Press | 2010, Pages 271-281
• Type of Work: Article | Final Publisher PDF
• Publisher DOI: http://doi.org/10.3233/RNN-2010-0534
• Subjects: Biology, Neuroscience

Abstract

This review focusses on cross-modal plasticity resulting from visual deprivation. This is viewed against the background of task-specific visual cortical recruitment that is routine during tactile tasks in the sighted and that may depend in part on visual imagery. Superior tactile perceptual performance in the blind may be practice-related, although there are unresolved questions regarding the effects of Braille-reading experience and the age of onset of blindness. While visual cortical areas are clearly more involved in tactile microspatial processing in the blind than in the sighted, it still remains unclear how to reconcile these tactile processes with the growing literature implicating visual cortical activity in a wide range of cognitive tasks in the blind, including those involving language, or with studies of short-term, reversible visual deprivation in the normally sighted that reveal plastic changes even over periods of hours or days.