BRAILLE READING & ADAPTIVE PLASTICITY IN THE HUMAN BRAIN

盲文阅读

• 批准号: 2903625
• 负责人: Harold Burton
• 金额: $ 38.28万
• 依托单位: WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 1999
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1999-07-01 至 2004-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/2903625
• 关键词: behavioral /social science research tag; bioimaging /biomedical imaging; blind aid; blindness; clinical research; disease /disorder onset; functional magnetic resonance imaging; human subject; language; neural information processing; neural plasticity; psycholinguistics; psychological adaptation; reading; somesthesis; touch

DESCRIPTION: (adapted from applicant's abstract)Braille reading is a remarkable example of the human brain adopting compensatory strategies following loss of a vital function, namely visual input to language. We propose using whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in congenitally blind, late-onset blind and sighted subjects to investigate the functional anatomy of the sensory and cognitive processes underlying Braille reading. These studies address an on-going debate about whether the blind show increased capacity for processing non-visual information and whether these changes are examples of the brain's adaptive plasticity. The central issue underlying these experiments is investigating possible changes in somatosensory, visual and language areas of the brain that facilitate fluent Braille reading in the blind. We propose six interlocking experiments that involve, in turn, passive somatosensory, active tactile (haptic) and language tasks. The first two experiments focus on responses to passive, controlled somatosensory stimulation in blind vs. sighted subjects. These studies involve tactile discrimination tasks and a low-level lexical task of identifying raised block capital letters. The middle two experiments study blind subjects actively reading Braille, first with an emphasis on haptic pattern recognition and then higher-level semantics (word meaning). The last two experiments again involve blind and sighted subjects, now performing semantic and phoneme (word sound)tasks in response to heard words. The first and last two experiments examine similarities and differences in the organization of sensory and language systems in blind and sighted subjects performing non-Braille tasks, without visual and motor performance bias. In addition, these experiments will determine whether Braille reading skill reflects functional cortical changes that are general to somatosensory processing or specific to Braille reading and whether blind and sighted subjects use visual cortex for non-visual tasks in a similar manner. The middle two experiments investigate language skills unique to the blind to determine whether theses subjects have fundamentally modified neural systems or instead access the same cognitive systems as sighted subjects by a different sensory route.

描述：(摘自申请者的摘要)盲文阅读是一项了不起的工作 人脑在失去大脑后采取补偿策略的例子 生命功能，即语言的视觉输入。我们建议使用全脑 先天性盲、晚发型患者的功能磁共振成像 盲人和有视力的受试者研究感官的功能解剖 盲文阅读的认知过程。这些研究针对的是 关于盲人是否表现出更强的处理能力的争论正在进行中 以及这些变化是否是大脑 适应性可塑性。这些实验背后的中心问题是 研究儿童在躯体感觉、视觉和语言方面的可能变化 帮助盲人流利阅读盲文的大脑。 我们提出了六个连锁实验，依次涉及被动的 躯体感觉、主动触觉(触觉)和语言任务。前两个 实验侧重于对被动的、受控的体感刺激的反应 在盲人和有视力的受试者中。这些研究涉及触觉辨别。 任务和识别大写字母的低级词汇任务。 中间两个实验研究盲人受试者主动阅读盲文，首先 重点是触觉模式识别，然后是更高级别的语义 (词义)。最后两个实验同样涉及盲人和有视力的人 受试者，现在正在执行语义和音素(单词声音)任务，以响应 听到了一些话。第一个和最后两个实验考察了相似之处和 盲人和盲人在感觉和语言系统的组织上的差异 有视力的受试者执行非盲文任务，没有视觉和运动能力 表现偏颇。此外，这些实验将确定盲文是否 阅读技能反映的是大脑皮层的功能变化 体感加工或特定于盲文阅读以及盲人和盲人 有视力的受试者以类似的方式使用视觉皮质完成非视觉任务。 中间两个实验考察了盲人独有的语言技能 确定这些受试者是否有从根本上改变的神经系统或 取而代之的是通过不同的方式访问与有视力的受试者相同的认知系统 感官路线。