Reorganisation of the visual cortex in callosal agenesis and colpocephaly

Structural defects involving eloquent regions of the cerebral cortex may be accompanied by abnormal localisation of function. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we studied the organisation of the visual cortex in a patient with callosal agenesis and colpocephaly, whose visual acuity and binocular visual fields were normal. The stimulus used was a moving grating confined to one hemifield, on a background of moving dots. In addition to activation patterns elicited by stimulation of each hemifield in the patient, the activation pattern was compared to that seen in six normal volunteers. fMRI demonstrated large scale reorganisation of visual cortical areas in the left hemisphere, and fewer activation foci were observed in both occipital lobes when compared with normal subjects.