ArticleNeuroImage2016
Top-down influence on the visual cortex of the blind during sensory substitution.
Article in NeuroImage, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed.
- Cortical functional connectivity in mouse models of early blindness: enucleation vs. anophthalmia.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2026Article
- Brain-Computer Interfaces for Vision Recovery in Precortical Vision Loss.Eye and brain · 2026Review
- Article
- Study of vision-related resting-state activity in suprasellar tumor patients with postoperative visual damage.Brain and behavior · 2024Article
- Article
- Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) of the Visual Cortex with Wide-View Retinotopic Stimulation.Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE · 2023Article
- Diverging patterns of plasticity in the nucleus basalis of Meynert in early- and late-onset blindness.Brain communications · 2023Article
- Application of advanced magnetic resonance imaging in glaucoma: a narrative review.Quantitative imaging in medicine and surgery · 2022Review
- Sight restoration reverses blindness-induced cross-modal functional connectivity changes between the visual and somatosensory cortex at rest.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Article
- Role of Structural, Metabolic, and Functional MRI in Monitoring Visual System Impairment and Recovery.Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI · 2021Review
- The effect of congenital blindness on resting-state functional connectivity revisited.Scientific reports · 2021Observational
- Study of rapid reorganization of visual neurofunctions with the resting-state functional MRI in pituitary adenoma patients with vision improvement after transsphenoidal surgery.Brain and behavior · 2021Article
- Brain-Machine Interfaces to Assist the Blind.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2021Review
- Cross-modal size-contrast illusion: Acoustic increases in intensity and bandwidth modulate haptic representation of object size.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Alterations of the Brain Microstructure and Corresponding Functional Connectivity in Early-Blind Adolescents.Neural plasticity · 2019Article
- Multimodal mental imagery.Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior · 2018Review
- Functional MRI of Sensory Substitution in the Blind.Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual International Conference · 2018Article
- Designing sensory-substitution devices: Principles, pitfalls and potential1.Restorative neurology and neuroscience · 2016Review
- Non-invasive MRI Assessments of Tissue Microstructures and Macromolecules in the Eye upon Biomechanical or Biochemical Modulation.Scientific reports · 2016Article
- Are Supramodality and Cross-Modal Plasticity the Yin and Yang of Brain Development? From Blindness to Rehabilitation.Frontiers in systems neuroscience · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Visual sensory substitution devices provide a non-surgical and flexible approach to vision rehabilitation in the blind. These devices convert images taken by a camera into cross-modal sensory signals that are presented as a surrogate for direct visual input. While previous work has demonstrated that the visual cortex of blind subjects is recruited during sensory substitution, the cognitive basis of this activation remains incompletely understood. To test the hypothesis that top-down input provides a significant contribution to this activation, we performed functional MRI scanning in 11 blind (7 acquired and 4 congenital) and 11 sighted subjects under two conditions: passive listening of image-encoded soundscapes before sensory substitution training and active interpretation of the same auditory sensory substitution signals after a 10-minute training session. We found that the modulation of visual cortex activity due to active interpretation was significantly stronger in the blind over sighted subjects. In addition, congenitally blind subjects showed stronger task-induced modulation in the visual cortex than acquired blind subjects. In a parallel experiment, we scanned 18 blind (11 acquired and 7 congenital) and 18 sighted subjects at rest to investigate alterations in functional connectivity due to visual deprivation. The results demonstrated that visual cortex connectivity of the blind shifted away from sensory networks and toward known areas of top-down input. Taken together, our data support the model of the brain, including the visual system, as a highly flexible task-based and not sensory-based machine.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.