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Updated: Jun 23, 2026
13:51
Cross-Modal Multivariate Pattern Analysis
Published on: November 9, 2011
Is territorial expansion a mechanism for crossmodal plasticity?
M A Meredith1, H R Clemo1, S G Lomber2
1Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, 1101 E. Marshall St., Sanger Hall Rm. 12-067, Richmond, VA, 23298, USA.
The European Journal of Neuroscience
|April 4, 2017
Summary
Crossmodal plasticity, where one sense replaces another after sensory loss, is not due to brain region expansion. Existing connections are unmasked, not territorial takeover, in auditory cortex reorganization.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Sensory processing
- Crossmodal plasticity
Background:
- Crossmodal plasticity involves sensory substitution after sensory organ damage.
- A proposed mechanism is territorial expansion of active brain regions into areas with lost sensory input.
- The auditory field of the anterior ectosylvian sulcus (FAES) in cats shows visual reorganization after early deafness.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the territorial expansion hypothesis of crossmodal plasticity.
- To determine if visual reorganization in the FAES of early deaf cats results from the expansion of the adjacent ectosylvian visual area (AEV).
Main Methods:
- Used tracer injections to compare cortical connectivity patterns.
- Examined cytoarchitectonic and behavioral distinctions between the AEV and the reorganized FAES.
Main Results:
- Cortical connectivity patterns between the AEV and the early deaf FAES were significantly different.
- Substantial cytoarchitectonic and behavioral distinctions were observed between these areas.
Conclusions:
- The territorial expansion of the AEV does not mechanistically explain the crossmodal reorganization of the FAES.
- Unmasking of existing connections is the predominant mechanism underlying crossmodal plasticity, supported by recent studies.
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