Early visual deprivation changes cortical anatomical covariance in dorsal-stream structures

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Neuroimaging
• Sensory Deprivation

Background:

• Early blind individuals exhibit thicker occipital cortex than sighted individuals.
• Occipital cortical thickness predicts auditory discrimination performance in the blind, suggesting it's a neuroanatomical marker.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate covariation of occipital cortical morphology with other brain areas.
• Assess differences in anatomical covariance with the occipital cortex between early blind and sighted individuals.

Main Methods:

• Compared anatomical covariance patterns of the occipital cortex across the entire cortical surface in early blind and sighted individuals.
• Correlated cortical covariance strength with auditory task performance in early blind participants.

Main Results:

• Reduced anatomical covariance between the right occipital cortex and visual dorsal stream areas in early blind individuals.
• Cortical covariance between the occipital cortex and intraparietal sulcus predicted transposed melody discrimination performance in the early blind.

Conclusions:

• First evidence linking altered anatomical covariance to early sensory deprivation.
• Altered covariance may reflect changes in anatomical connectivity or experience-dependent plasticity.
• Findings guide future functional connectivity and diffusion tractography studies.