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Neural correlates of motion processing through echolocation, source hearing, and vision in blind echolocation experts
L Thaler1, J L Milne, S R Arnott
1Department of Psychology, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom;
Journal of Neurophysiology
|October 18, 2013
Summary
Blind experts
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Sensory processing
- Auditory perception
Background:
- Previous research indicated temporal-occipital cortex activation during echolocation in blind experts.
- The neural basis of echo-motion processing in relation to auditory and visual motion remains unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the neural substrates of echo-motion processing.
- To compare echo-motion processing with auditory source-motion and visual-motion.
- To examine cross-modal responses and laterality effects in motion-sensitive areas.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used.
- Participants included three blind echolocation experts and twelve sighted novices.
- Brain activity was measured while participants listened to echolocation and auditory source sounds, and sighted participants viewed visual stimuli.
Main Results:
- A double-dissociation was found between echo-motion and auditory source-motion processing in temporal-occipital cortex ROIs.
- Planum temporale ROIs did not show this double-dissociation.
- Blind experts exhibited contralateral motion preference in temporal-occipital echo-motion ROIs, unlike sighted novices.
Conclusions:
- Functional segregation exists for auditory source-motion and echo-motion in human temporal-occipital cortex.
- Echo-motion processing in blind experts may involve cortical reorganization, potentially recruiting visual areas.
- This reorganization differs from a simple exaggeration of responses seen in sighted individuals.
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