Grant: Project Grant

For human and non-human primates, vision is one of the most privileged sensory channels used to interact with the environment. The importance of vision is strongly embedded in the organization of the brain as about one-third of its cortical surface is involved in visual functions. It is therefore not surprising that the absence of vision from birth, or the loss of vision later in life, has huge consequences, both anatomically and functionally. We have shown in previous studies that, although the visual system undergoes some atrophic changes following the loss of vision at birth, it is nonetheless present and can be activated by a variety of non-visual stimuli such as touch, audition and even smell. In this project, we will address a number of critical and timely questions on the effects of late-onset blindness on the organization of the brain connectome and its associated compensatory behavioral changes. The specific and novel goals of this project are 1) to investigate the pathways through which non-visual information is conveyed to the occipital cortex in late blind individuals 2) to investigate the role of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA in the occipital cortex in cross-modal neuroplastic responses in blind individuals, and 3) to clarify the brain microstructural and functional organization in late-onset blindness via the dynamics of neuroplastic adaptations, following the loss of vision in adult life. Our results will further our understanding of the capacity of the blind brain for plastic changes. With the advent of novel methods for restoring vision in blind individuals, this will be instrumental in defining the optimal window to help them "see".