The Effect of Congenital Blindness on Resting-state Functional Connectivity Revisited

Overview

Journal Sci Rep

Specialty Science

Date 2021 Jun 15

PMID 34127748

Citations 2

Authors

Maria J S Guerreiro

Madita Linke

Sunitha Lingareddy

Ramesh Kekunnaya

Brigitte Roder

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Lower 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.

Citing Articles

Longitudinal stability of individual brain plasticity patterns in blindness.

Amaral L, Thomas P, Amedi A, Striem-Amit E Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2024; 121(32):e2320251121.

PMID: 39078671 PMC: 11317565. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2320251121.

Typical resting-state activity of the brain requires visual input during an early sensitive period.

Raczy K, Holig C, Guerreiro M, Lingareddy S, Kekunnaya R, Roder B Brain Commun. 2022; 4(4):fcac146.

PMID: 35836836 PMC: 9275761. DOI: 10.1093/braincomms/fcac146.

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