scholarly journals Visual Experience is not Necessary for the Development of Face Selectivity in the Lateral Fusiform Gyrus

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Apurva Ratan Murty ◽  
Santani Teng ◽  
David Beeler ◽  
Anna Mynick ◽  
Aude Oliva ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Long Range ◽  
Visual Experience ◽  
Fusiform Gyrus ◽  
Visual Expertise ◽  
Haptic Exploration ◽  
Congenitally Blind ◽  
Face Selectivity ◽  
3D Printed

AbstractHere we show robust face-selectivity in the lateral fusiform gyrus of congenitally blind participants during haptic exploration of 3D-printed stimuli, indicating that neither visual experience, nor fovea-biased input, nor visual expertise is necessary for face-selectivity to arise in its characteristic location. Similar resting fMRI correlation fingerprints in individual blind and sighted participants suggest a role for long-range connectivity in the specification of the cortical locus of face-selectivity.

scholarly journals Visual experience is not necessary for the development of face-selectivity in the lateral fusiform gyrus

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (37) ◽  
pp. 23011-23020 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Apurva Ratan Murty ◽  
Santani Teng ◽  
David Beeler ◽  
Anna Mynick ◽  
Aude Oliva ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Experience ◽  
Fusiform Gyrus ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Haptic Exploration ◽  
Cortical Responses ◽  
Congenitally Blind ◽  
Face Selectivity ◽  
3D Printed ◽  
Blind Individuals

The fusiform face area responds selectively to faces and is causally involved in face perception. How does face-selectivity in the fusiform arise in development, and why does it develop so systematically in the same location across individuals? Preferential cortical responses to faces develop early in infancy, yet evidence is conflicting on the central question of whether visual experience with faces is necessary. Here, we revisit this question by scanning congenitally blind individuals with fMRI while they haptically explored 3D-printed faces and other stimuli. We found robust face-selective responses in the lateral fusiform gyrus of individual blind participants during haptic exploration of stimuli, indicating that neither visual experience with faces nor fovea-biased inputs is necessary for face-selectivity to arise in the lateral fusiform gyrus. Our results instead suggest a role for long-range connectivity in specifying the location of face-selectivity in the human brain.

scholarly journals The effect of congenital blindness on resting-state functional connectivity revisited

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria J. S. Guerreiro ◽  
Madita Linke ◽  
Sunitha Lingareddy ◽  
Ramesh Kekunnaya ◽  
Brigitte Röder
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Visual Experience ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
State Condition ◽  
Resting State Functional Connectivity ◽  
Congenital Blindness ◽  
Eyes Closed ◽  
Congenitally Blind ◽  
Eyes Open

AbstractLower resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) between ‘visual’ and non-‘visual’ neural circuits has been reported as a hallmark of congenital blindness. In sighted individuals, RSFC between visual and non-visual brain regions has been shown to increase during rest with eyes closed relative to rest with eyes open. To determine the role of visual experience on the modulation of RSFC by resting state condition—as well as to evaluate the effect of resting state condition on group differences in RSFC—, we compared RSFC between visual and somatosensory/auditory regions in congenitally blind individuals (n = 9) and sighted participants (n = 9) during eyes open and eyes closed conditions. In the sighted group, we replicated the increase of RSFC between visual and non-visual areas during rest with eyes closed relative to rest with eyes open. This was not the case in the congenitally blind group, resulting in a lower RSFC between ‘visual’ and non-‘visual’ circuits relative to sighted controls only in the eyes closed condition. These results indicate that visual experience is necessary for the modulation of RSFC by resting state condition and highlight the importance of considering whether sighted controls should be tested with eyes open or closed in studies of functional brain reorganization as a consequence of blindness.

The role of visual experience for spatial numerical associations

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (0) ◽  
pp. 222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Proulx ◽  
Achille Pasqualotto ◽  
Shuichiro Taya
Keyword(s):  
Visual Experience ◽  
Opposite Effect ◽  
Random Number Generation ◽  
Number Line ◽  
Mental Number Line ◽  
Generation Task ◽  
Congenitally Blind ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
The Right

The topographic representation of space interacts with the mental representation of number. Evidence for such number–space relations have been reported in both synaesthetic and non-synaesthetic participants. Thus far most studies have only examined related effects in sighted participants. For example, the mental number line increases in magnitude from left to right in sighted individuals (Loetscher et al., 2008, Curr. Biol.). What is unclear is whether this association arises from innate mechanisms or requires visual experience early in life to develop in this way. Here we investigated the role of visual experience for the left to right spatial numerical association using a random number generation task in congenitally blind, late blind, and blindfolded sighted participants. Participants orally generated numbers randomly whilst turning their head to the left and right. Sighted participants generated smaller numbers when they turned their head to the left than to the right, consistent with past results. In contrast, congenitally blind participants generated smaller numbers when they turned their head to the right than to the left, exhibiting the opposite effect. The results of the late blind participants showed an intermediate profile between that of the sighted and congenitally blind participants. Visual experience early in life is therefore necessary for the development of the spatial numerical association of the mental number line.

scholarly journals How visual experience and task context modulate the use of internal and external spatial coordinate for perception and action

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginie Crollen ◽  
Tiffany Spruyt ◽  
Pierre Mahau ◽  
Roberto Bottini ◽  
Olivier Collignon
Keyword(s):  
Coordinate System ◽  
Visual Experience ◽  
Simon Task ◽  
Frame Of Reference ◽  
The Body ◽  
Blind People ◽  
Coordinate Systems ◽  
Task Instructions ◽  
Congenitally Blind ◽  
External Frame

Recent studies proposed that the use of internal and external coordinate systems may be more flexible in congenitally blind when compared to sighted individuals. To investigate this hypothesis further, we asked congenitally blind and sighted people to perform, with the hands uncrossed and crossed over the body midline, a tactile TOJ and an auditory Simon task. Crucially, both tasks were carried out under task instructions either favoring the use of an internal (left vs. right hand) or an external (left vs. right hemispace) frame of reference. In the internal condition of the TOJ task, our results replicated previous findings (Röder et al., 2004) showing that hand crossing only impaired sighted participants’ performance, suggesting that blind people did not activate by default a (conflicting) external frame of reference. However, under external instructions, a decrease of performance was observed in both groups, suggesting that even blind people activated an external coordinate system in this condition. In the Simon task, and in contrast with a previous study (Roder et al., 2007), both groups responded more efficiently when the sound was presented from the same side of the response (‘‘Simon effect’’) independently of the hands position. This was true under the internal and external conditions, therefore suggesting that blind and sighted by default activated an external coordinate system in this task. All together, these data comprehensively demonstrate how visual experience shapes the default weight attributed to internal and external coordinate systems for action and perception depending on task demand.

scholarly journals Shared understanding of color among congenitally blind and sighted adults

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judy Sein Kim ◽  
Brianna Aheimer ◽  
Veronica Montane Manrara ◽  
Marina Bedny
Keyword(s):  
Visual Experience ◽  
Natural Kinds ◽  
Shared Understanding ◽  
Linguistic Communication ◽  
Causal Explanations ◽  
Stop Sign ◽  
Congenitally Blind ◽  
Novel Objects ◽  
Blind Individuals

Empiricist philosophers such as Locke famously argued that people born blind could only acquire shallow, fragmented facts about color. Contrary to this intuition, we report that blind and sighted people share an in-depth understanding of color, despite disagreeing about arbitrary color facts. Relative to the sighted, blind individuals are less likely to generate ‘yellow’ for banana and ‘red’ for stop-sign. However, blind and sighted adults are equally likely to infer that two bananas (natural kinds) and two stop-signs (artifacts with functional colors) are more likely to have the same color than two cars (artifacts with non-functional colors), make similar inferences about novel objects’ colors, and provide similar causal explanations. We argue that people develop inferentially-rich and intuitive “theories” of color regardless of visual experience. Linguistic communication is more effective at aligning people’s theories than their knowledge of verbal facts.

The Mental Maps of the Blind: The Role of Previous Visual Experience

1982 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. G. Dodds ◽  
C. I. Howarth ◽  
D. C. Carter
Keyword(s):  
Visual Experience ◽  
Spatial Reasoning ◽  
Mental Maps ◽  
Spatial Coding ◽  
Spatial Understanding ◽  
Spatial Strategies ◽  
Blind Children ◽  
Coding Strategies ◽  
Congenitally Blind

The structure of spatial representation in congenitally and adventitiously blind 11-year-old children was examined by means of pointing, map-drawing, and spatial reasoning on two simple routes over repeated trials. Although all the children learned how to travel each route successfully after only one trial, three out of four of the congenitally blind children showed a complete lack of spatial understanding, as evinced by “egocentric” or “self-referent” spatial coding strategies, whereas all the adventitiously blind subjects exhibited appropriate externally referent spatial strategies compatible with convential two-dimensional maps. The role of previous visual experience in the encoding and decoding of spatial material in memory is discussed.

scholarly journals The Haptic Müller-Lyer Illusion in Sighted and Blind People

Perception ◽  
10.1068/p3340 ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 31 (10) ◽  
pp. 1263-1274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morton A Heller ◽  
Deneen D Brackett ◽  
Kathy Wilson ◽  
Keiko Yoneyama ◽  
Amanda Boyer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Imagery ◽  
Visual Experience ◽  
Low Vision ◽  
Blind People ◽  
Spatial Distortion ◽  
Lyer Illusion ◽  
Visual Status ◽  
Nonsignificant Difference ◽  
Congenitally Blind ◽  
Size Estimates

We examined the effect of visual experience on the haptic Müller-Lyer illusion. Subjects made size estimates of raised lines by using a sliding haptic ruler. Independent groups of blindfolded-sighted, late-blind, congenitally blind, and low-vision subjects judged the sizes of wings-in and wings-out stimuli, plain lines, and lines with short vertical ends. An illusion was found, since the wings-in stimuli were judged as shorter than the wings-out patterns and all of the other stimuli. Subjects generally underestimated the lengths of lines. In a second experiment we found a nonsignificant difference between length judgments of raised lines as opposed to smooth wooden dowels. The strength of the haptic illusion depends upon the angles of the wings, with a much stronger illusion for more acute angles. The effect of visual status was nonsignificant, suggesting that spatial distortion in the haptic Müller-Lyer illusion does not depend upon visual imagery or visual experience.

The role of visual experience in spatial reference frame preference

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (0) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Achille Pasqualotto
Keyword(s):  
Reference Frame ◽  
Spatial Representation ◽  
Visual Experience ◽  
Reference Frames ◽  
Single Point ◽  
Memory Test ◽  
Object Locations ◽  
Congenitally Blind ◽  
Spatial Reference Frame

How do people remember the location of objects? Location is always relative, and thus depends on a reference frame. There are two types of reference frames: egocentric (or observer-based) and allocentric (or environmental-based). Here we investigated the reference frame people used to remember object locations in a large room. We also examined whether the choice of a given reference frame is dictated by visual experience. Thus we tested congenitally blind, late blind, and sighted blindfolded participants. Objects were organized in a structured configuration and then explored one-by-one with participants walking back and forth from a single point. After the exploration of the locations, a spatial memory test was conducted. The memory test required participants to imagine being inside the array of objects, being oriented along a given heading, and then pointing towards the required object. Crucially the headings were either aligned to the allocentric structure of the configuration, that is rows and columns, or aligned to the egocentric route walked during the exploration of the objects. The spatial representation used by the participants can be revealed by better performance when the imagined heading in the test matches the spatial representation used. We found that participants with visual experience, that is late blind and blindfolded sighted, were better with headings aligned to the allocentric structure of the configuration. On the contrary, congenitally blind were more accurate with headings aligned to the egocentric walked routes. This suggests that visual experience during early development determines a preference for an allocentric frame of reference.

scholarly journals Fusiform Gyrus Face Selectivity Relates to Individual Differences in Facial Recognition Ability

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (7) ◽  
pp. 1723-1740 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Furl ◽  
Lúcia Garrido ◽  
Raymond J. Dolan ◽  
Jon Driver ◽  
Bradley Duchaine
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Face Processing ◽  
Statistical Parametric Mapping ◽  
Fusiform Gyrus ◽  
Face Identification ◽  
Functional Responses ◽  
Temporal Lobes ◽  
Repetition Suppression ◽  
Recognition Ability ◽  
Face Selectivity

Regions of the occipital and temporal lobes, including a region in the fusiform gyrus (FG), have been proposed to constitute a “core” visual representation system for faces, in part because they show face selectivity and face repetition suppression. But recent fMRI studies of developmental prosopagnosics (DPs) raise questions about whether these measures relate to face processing skills. Although DPs manifest deficient face processing, most studies to date have not shown unequivocal reductions of functional responses in the proposed core regions. We scanned 15 DPs and 15 non-DP control participants with fMRI while employing factor analysis to derive behavioral components related to face identification or other processes. Repetition suppression specific to facial identities in FG or to expression in FG and STS did not show compelling relationships with face identification ability. However, we identified robust relationships between face selectivity and face identification ability in FG across our sample for several convergent measures, including voxel-wise statistical parametric mapping, peak face selectivity in individually defined “fusiform face areas” (FFAs), and anatomical extents (cluster sizes) of those FFAs. None of these measures showed associations with behavioral expression or object recognition ability. As a group, DPs had reduced face-selective responses in bilateral FFA when compared with non-DPs. Individual DPs were also more likely than non-DPs to lack expected face-selective activity in core regions. These findings associate individual differences in face processing ability with selectivity in core face processing regions. This confirms that face selectivity can provide a valid marker for neural mechanisms that contribute to face identification ability.

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