New article: Brain 'rewires' enhance other senses in blind people read more at here http://www.spinonews.com/index.php/medical-news/item/3071-brain-rewires-enhance-other-senses-in-blind-people

According to a new study led by Massachusetts Eye and Ear researchers, the brains of those who are born blind make new connections in the absence of visual information, resulting in enhanced, compensatory abilities such as a heightened sense of hearing, smell and touch, as well as cognitive functions.

The study describes for the first time the combined structural, functional and anatomical changes in the brain evident in those born with blindness that are not present in normally sighted people.  

Lead author Corinna M. Bauer, Ph.D., a scientist at Schepens Eye Research Institute of Mass, said, our results demonstrate that the structural and functional neuroplastic brain changes occurring as a result of early ocular blindness may be more widespread than initially thought.

Corinna said, we observed significant changes not only in the occipital cortex, but also areas implicated in memory, language processing, and sensory motor functions.

The researchers used MRI multimodal brain imaging techniques, to reveal these changes in a group of 12 subjects with early blindness, and they compared the scans to a group of 16 normally sighted subjects.

On the scans of those with early blindness, the team observed structural and functional connectivity changes, including evidence of enhanced connections, sending information back and forth between areas of the brain that they did not observe in the normally sighted group.

These connections that appear to be unique in those with profound blindness suggest that the brain "rewires" itself in the absence of visual information to boost other senses. This is possible through the process of neuroplasticity, or the ability of our brains to naturally adapt to our experiences.

 

The researchers hope that increased understanding of these connections will lead to more effective rehabilitation efforts that will enable blind individuals to better compensate for the absence of visual information.

More information: [PLOS]