Mapping Functional Organisation of the Occipital Cortex in Blind Individuals

The study of congenitally blind individuals has emerged as a unique model to explore the role experience plays in shaping the functional organization of the occipital cortex. Previous studies have shown that the motion responsive region hMT+/V5, typically considered as purely visual, selectively respond to auditory motion in the congenitally blind and, to a lesser extend, in the sighted. However, the possibility to decode motion direction information, as it is the case in the sighted in vision, remains elusive. Method To create a vivid and ecological sensation of sound location/motion in external space, we relied on individual in-ear stereo recordings of horizontal and vertical moving and static sounds that were re-played to the participants when they were inside fMRI. Results Preliminary multivariate analyses suggest that auditory motion direction can be decoded in the occipital cortex of both groups. Discussion The extent to which visual deprivation impacts on the presence of auditory motion information in these “visual” regions is currently assessed by increasing the number of participants in both groups