Harold Burton|Abraham Z. Snyder|Marcus E. Raichle
Resting state functional connectivity in early blind humans
Washington University in St. Louis|Washington University in St. Louis|Washington University in St. Louis
taskbased neuroimaging studies early blind humans eb demonstrated heightened visual cortex responses nonvisual paradigms several prior functional connectivity studies eb shown altered connections consistent taskbased results studies generally consider behavioral adaptations lifelong blindness typically observed eb enhanced cognitive abilities shown eb include greater serial recall attention memory address question extent brain intrinsic activity eb reflects adaptations performed restingstate functional magnetic resonance imaging study contrasting 14 eb 14 agegender matched normally sighted controls ns principal finding markedly greater functional connectivity eb visual cortex regions typically associated memory cognitive control attention contrast correlations visual cortex nondeprived sensory cortices significantly lower eb thus available data including obtained prior taskbased resting state fmri studies well present results indicate visual cortex eb becomes heavily incorporated functional systems instantiating episodic recall attention nonvisual events moreover eb appear show reduction interactions visual nondeprived sensory cortices possibly reflecting suppression intersensory distracting activity