The influence of visual deprivation on the development of the thalamocortical network: Evidence from congenitally blind children and adults
Junfeng Lin,
Linjun Zhang,
Runhua Guo,
Saiyi Jiao,
Xiaomeng Song,
Suting Feng,
Ke Wang,
Mingyang Li,
Yudan Luo,
Zaizhu Han
Affiliations
Junfeng Lin
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Linjun Zhang
School of Chinese as a Second Language, Peking University, Beijing 100091, China
Runhua Guo
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Saiyi Jiao
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Xiaomeng Song
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Suting Feng
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Ke Wang
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Mingyang Li
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Biomedical Engineering & Instrument Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Yudan Luo
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Zaizhu Han
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Corresponding author at: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
The thalamus is heavily involved in relaying sensory signals to the cerebral cortex. A relevant issue is how the deprivation of congenital visual sensory information modulates the development of the thalamocortical network. The answer is unclear because previous studies on this topic did not investigate network development, structure-function combinations, and cognition-related behaviors in the same study. To overcome these limitations, we recruited 30 congenitally blind subjects (8 children, 22 adults) and 31 sighted subjects (10 children, 21 adults), and conducted multiple analyses [i.e., gray matter volume (GMV) analysis using the voxel-based morphometry (VBM) method, resting-state functional connectivity (FC), and brain-behavior correlation]. We found that congenital blindness elicited significant changes in the development of GMV in visual and somatosensory thalamic regions. Blindness also resulted in significant changes in the development of FC between somatosensory thalamic regions and visual cortical regions as well as advanced information processing regions. Moreover, the somatosensory thalamic regions and their FCs with visual cortical regions were reorganized to process high-level tactile language information in blind individuals. These findings provide a refined understanding of the neuroanatomical and functional plasticity of the thalamocortical network.
