Visual Cortex Extrastriate Body-Selective Area Activation in Congenitally Blind People “Seeing” by Using Sounds
Visual Cortex Extrastriate Body-Selective Area Activation in Congenitally Blind People “Seeing” by Using Sounds
复制标题
DOI：
10.1016/j.cub.2014.02.010
复制
发表时间：
2014-03
期刊：
影响因子：
9.2
通讯作者：
E. Striem-Amit;A. Amedi
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
E. Striem-Amit;A. Amedi
视觉是迄今为止最普遍的感觉，用于体验他人的身体形状，姿势，动作和意图，它的先天缺失可能会严重阻碍大脑中的身体形状表征。我们研究了缺乏视觉经验和有限的接触他人的身体形状是否仍然会导致身体形状选择性。我们教先天性全盲的成年人感知全身的形状，通过一种感觉替代算法将图像地形转换为音景[1]。尽管先天性失明者对外部身体形状的经验有限（通过触摸附近的身体和通过音景10小时），一旦盲人可以通过音景检索身体形状，他们就会强烈激活视觉皮层，特别是纹外体区（EBA; [2]）。此外，身体的选择性与纹理，物体，和面孔在盲人和视力控制组没有发现在颞（听觉）或顶叶（体感）皮层，但只有在视觉EBA。最后，静息状态数据显示，盲眼EBA在功能上与颞叶皮层颞顶交界区/上级颞沟心智理论区相连[3]。因此，EBA偏好在没有视觉经验和很少接触外部体形信息的情况下存在，支持大脑具有感觉独立的、任务选择性的超模态组织而不是感觉特异性组织的观点。
Vision is by far the most prevalent sense for experiencing others' body shapes, postures, actions, and intentions, and its congenital absence may dramatically hamper body-shape representation in the brain. We investigated whether the absence of visual experience and limited exposure to others' body shapes could still lead to body-shape selectivity. We taught congenitally fully-blind adults to perceive full-body shapes conveyed through a sensory-substitution algorithm topographically translating images into soundscapes [1]. Despite the limited experience of the congenitally blind with external body shapes (via touch of close-by bodies and for ∼10 hr via soundscapes), once the blind could retrieve body shapes via soundscapes, they robustly activated the visual cortex, specifically the extrastriate body area (EBA; [2]). Furthermore, body selectivity versus textures, objects, and faces in both the blind and sighted control groups was not found in the temporal (auditory) or parietal (somatosensory) cortex but only in the visual EBA. Finally, resting-state data showed that the blind EBA is functionally connected to the temporal cortex temporal-parietal junction/superior temporal sulcus Theory-of-Mind areas [3]. Thus, the EBA preference is present without visual experience and with little exposure to external body-shape information, supporting the view that the brain has a sensory-independent, task-selective supramodal organization rather than a sensory-specific organization.