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Heitmann C, Zhan M, Linke M, Hölig C, Kekunnaya R, van Hoof R, Goebel R, Röder B. Early visual experience refines the retinotopic organization within and across visual cortical regions. Curr Biol 2023; 33:4950-4959.e4. [PMID: 37918397 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.10.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2022] [Revised: 09/29/2023] [Accepted: 10/06/2023] [Indexed: 11/04/2023]
Abstract
Early visual areas are retinotopically organized in human and non-human primates. Population receptive field (pRF) size increases with eccentricity and from lower- to higher-level visual areas. Furthermore, the cortical magnification factor (CMF), a measure of how much cortical space is devoted to each degree of visual angle, is typically larger for foveal as opposed to peripheral regions of the visual field. Whether this fine-scale organization within and across visual areas depends on early visual experience has yet been unknown. Here, we employed 7T functional magnetic resonance imaging pRF mapping to assess the retinotopic organization of early visual regions (i.e., V1, V2, and V3) in eight sight recovery individuals with a history of congenital blindness until a maximum of 4 years of age. Compared with sighted controls, foveal pRF sizes in these individuals were larger, and pRF sizes did not show the typical increase with eccentricity and down the visual cortical processing stream (V1-V2-V3). Cortical magnification was overall diminished and decreased less from foveal to parafoveal visual field locations. Furthermore, cortical magnification correlated with visual acuity in sight recovery individuals. The results of this study suggest that early visual experience is essential for refining a presumably innate prototypical retinotopic organization in humans within and across visual areas, which seems to be crucial for acquiring full visual capabilities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carolin Heitmann
- Biological Psychology and Neuropsychology Lab, Faculty of Psychology and Movement Sciences, Universität Hamburg, Von-Melle-Park 11, 20146 Hamburg, Germany.
| | - Minye Zhan
- U992 (Cognitive neuroimaging unit), NeuroSpin, INSERM-CEA, 91191 Gif sur Yvette, France
| | - Madita Linke
- Biological Psychology and Neuropsychology Lab, Faculty of Psychology and Movement Sciences, Universität Hamburg, Von-Melle-Park 11, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
| | - Cordula Hölig
- Biological Psychology and Neuropsychology Lab, Faculty of Psychology and Movement Sciences, Universität Hamburg, Von-Melle-Park 11, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
| | - Ramesh Kekunnaya
- U992 (Cognitive neuroimaging unit), NeuroSpin, INSERM-CEA, 91191 Gif sur Yvette, France
| | - Rick van Hoof
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Universiteitssingel 40, 6229 ER Maastricht, the Netherlands
| | - Rainer Goebel
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Universiteitssingel 40, 6229 ER Maastricht, the Netherlands; Department of Development and Research, Brain Innovation B.V., Oxfordlaan 55, 6229 EV Maastricht, the Netherlands
| | - Brigitte Röder
- Biological Psychology and Neuropsychology Lab, Faculty of Psychology and Movement Sciences, Universität Hamburg, Von-Melle-Park 11, 20146 Hamburg, Germany; Child Sight Institute, Jasti V. Ramanamma Children's Eye Care Center, LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, Telangana 500034, India.
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Arend I, Yuen K, Yizhar O, Chebat DR, Amedi A. Gyrification in relation to cortical thickness in the congenitally blind. Front Neurosci 2022; 16:970878. [DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.970878] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2022] [Accepted: 10/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Greater cortical gyrification (GY) is linked with enhanced cognitive abilities and is also negatively related to cortical thickness (CT). Individuals who are congenitally blind (CB) exhibits remarkable functional brain plasticity which enables them to perform certain non-visual and cognitive tasks with supranormal abilities. For instance, extensive training using touch and audition enables CB people to develop impressive skills and there is evidence linking these skills to cross-modal activations of primary visual areas. There is a cascade of anatomical, morphometric and functional-connectivity changes in non-visual structures, volumetric reductions in several components of the visual system, and CT is also increased in CB. No study to date has explored GY changes in this population, and no study has explored how variations in CT are related to GY changes in CB. T1-weighted 3D structural magnetic resonance imaging scans were acquired to examine the effects of congenital visual deprivation in cortical structures in a healthy sample of 11 CB individuals (6 male) and 16 age-matched sighted controls (SC) (10 male). In this report, we show for the first time an increase in GY in several brain areas of CB individuals compared to SC, and a negative relationship between GY and CT in the CB brain in several different cortical areas. We discuss the implications of our findings and the contributions of developmental factors and synaptogenesis to the relationship between CT and GY in CB individuals compared to SC. F.
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