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Neuroplasticity in the Adjustment to Blindness

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Book cover Neuronal Plasticity: Building a Bridge from the Laboratory to the Clinic

Part of the book series: Research and Perspectives in Neurosciences ((NEUROSCIENCE))

Summary

Loss of vision due to injury to the eyes results in deafferentation of very large areas of the human cortex and poses striking demands on other sensory systems to adjust to blindness in a society that heavily relies on vision. Blind subjects need to extract crucial spatial information from touch and hearing. To accomplish this, plastic trans-modal changes appear to take place by which a larger area of the sensorimotor cortex is devoted to the representation of the reading finger in Braille readers, and parts of the former visual cortex are recruited for the processing of tactile and auditory information.

These findings provide evidence of trans-modal sensory plasticity in humans. Similar mechanisms might be involved in other forms of skill learning and recovery from lesions. Recent studies suggest the possibility that available neurophysiologic techniques might not only be used to reveal such plastic changes, but may also have a potential role in guiding the plastic changes, thus improving functional outcome.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Magnetic Brain Stimulation, Dept. Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center & Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    A. Pascual-Leone, R. Hamilton & J. P. Keenan

  2. Unidad de Neurobiologia, Dept. Fisiologia, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Universidad de Valencia and Instituto Cajal, Spain

    A. Pascual-Leone, J. M. Tormos & M. D. Catalá

Authors
  1. A. Pascual-Leone
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  2. R. Hamilton
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  3. J. M. Tormos
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  4. J. P. Keenan
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  5. M. D. Catalá
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Cognitive Neuroscience Section, Medical Neurology Branch, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Building 10, Room 5C205, 10 Center Drive MSC 1440, Bethesda, MD, 20892-1440, USA

    J. Grafman Ph.D.

  2. Pour la Recherche Thérapeutique, Fondation IPSEN, 24, rue Erlanger, 75781, Paris Cedex 16, France

    Yves Christen Ph.D.

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© 1999 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York

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Pascual-Leone, A., Hamilton, R., Tormos, J.M., Keenan, J.P., Catalá, M.D. (1999). Neuroplasticity in the Adjustment to Blindness. In: Grafman, J., Christen, Y. (eds) Neuronal Plasticity: Building a Bridge from the Laboratory to the Clinic. Research and Perspectives in Neurosciences. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-59897-5_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-59897-5_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-64172-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-59897-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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