Description
Previous studies have found responses to both perceptual (e.g., face touching) and high-level (e.g., language) tasks in the visual cortices of blind people. Do these functions occupy the same or different parts of visual cortex? Congenitally blind (n=11) and sighted control (n=15) participants performed both face perception andlanguage fMRI experiments. We tested functional specialization for faces and language in the ventral occipitotemporal cortex (VOTC) using individual-subject analyses. Blind participants touched 3D-printed models of faces and scenes and performed a 1-back task. The same participants performed reading and spoken language tasks with tactile Braille words, Braille consonant strings and tactile control shapes, spoken words and audio control (backwards speech). Sighted blindfolded controls (n=15) performed an analogous language task but with visual words and viewed line-drawings of faces and objects. In the blind group, we replicate the previously observed left-lateralized responses to tactile faces in lateral VOTC, at or near the classic fusiform face area (FFA). However, for blind people, face-responsive voxels (faces>scenes) in the VOTC also responded to written and spoken language (Braille/spoken words>control). By contrast the sighted showed a clear functional dissociation between VOTC responses to language and faces, whereby face responsive voxels did not show higher activity for written/spoken words than control conditions. Visual experience is not required for responses to tactile faces in left VOTC but is necessary for specialization for faces as opposed to language. An intriguing possibly is that
connectivity to communication-relevant language regions together with visual experience leads to face/language dissociation in VOTC of sighted
| Period | 27 Jun 2023 |
|---|---|
| Event title | International Multisensory Research Forum |
| Event type | Conference |
| Conference number | 21 |
| Location | Brussels, United StatesShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |