Blindness and Human Brain Plasticity

Abstract

Early blindness causes fundamental alterations of neural function across more than 25% of cortex-changes that span the gamut from metabolism to behavior and collectively represent one of the most dramatic examples of plasticity in the human brain. The goal of this review is to describe how the remarkable behavioral and neuroanatomical compensations demonstrated by blind individuals provide insights into the extent, mechanisms, and limits of human brain plasticity.

Keywords: BOLD; auditory; blindness; cross-modal; plasticity; tactile; visual deprivation.