BRAILLE READING & ADAPTIVE PLASTICITY IN THE HUMAN BRAIN

盲文阅读

• 批准号: 6639532
• 负责人: Harold Burton
• 金额: $ 37.94万
• 依托单位: WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 1999
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1999-07-01 至 2006-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6639532
• 关键词: behavioral /social science research tag; bioimaging /biomedical imaging; blind aid; blindness; clinical research; disease /disorder onset; functional magnetic resonance imaging; human subject; language; neural information processing; neural plasticity; psycholinguistics; psychological adaptation; reading; somesthesis; touch

DESCRIPTION: (adapted from applicant's abstract)Braille reading is a remarkable example of the human brain adopting compensatory strategies following loss of a vital function, namely visual input to language. We propose using whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in congenitally blind, late-onset blind and sighted subjects to investigate the functional anatomy of the sensory and cognitive processes underlying Braille reading. These studies address an on-going debate about whether the blind show increased capacity for processing non-visual information and whether these changes are examples of the brain's adaptive plasticity. The central issue underlying these experiments is investigating possible changes in somatosensory, visual and language areas of the brain that facilitate fluent Braille reading in the blind. We propose six interlocking experiments that involve, in turn, passive somatosensory, active tactile (haptic) and language tasks. The first two experiments focus on responses to passive, controlled somatosensory stimulation in blind vs. sighted subjects. These studies involve tactile discrimination tasks and a low-level lexical task of identifying raised block capital letters. The middle two experiments study blind subjects actively reading Braille, first with an emphasis on haptic pattern recognition and then higher-level semantics (word meaning). The last two experiments again involve blind and sighted subjects, now performing semantic and phoneme (word sound)tasks in response to heard words. The first and last two experiments examine similarities and differences in the organization of sensory and language systems in blind and sighted subjects performing non-Braille tasks, without visual and motor performance bias. In addition, these experiments will determine whether Braille reading skill reflects functional cortical changes that are general to somatosensory processing or specific to Braille reading and whether blind and sighted subjects use visual cortex for non-visual tasks in a similar manner. The middle two experiments investigate language skills unique to the blind to determine whether theses subjects have fundamentally modified neural systems or instead access the same cognitive systems as sighted subjects by a different sensory route.

描述：（改编自申请人的摘要）盲文阅读是一个了不起的 丧失后，人脑采用补偿策略的例子 重要功能，即对语言的视觉输入。我们建议使用全脑 先天性，晚期发作的功能磁共振成像（fMRI） 盲人和视力受试者研究感觉的功能解剖结构 以及盲文阅读的认知过程。这些研究解决了 关于盲目展示是否会增加处理能力的持续辩论 非视觉信息以及这些变化是否是大脑的例子 自适应可塑性。这些实验的基础问题是 调查体感，视觉和语言领域的可能变化 促进盲人读取流利的盲文的大脑。 我们提出了六个互锁实验，又涉及被动的 体感，主动触觉（触觉）和语言任务。前两个 实验着重于对被动，控制的体感刺激的反应 在盲人与视力主题中。这些研究涉及触觉歧视 任务和低级词汇任务，即确定凸起的大写字母。 中间两个实验研究盲人主动阅读盲文，首先 强调触觉模式识别，然后是更高级别的语义 （单词含义）。最后两个实验再次涉及盲目并看到 受试者，现在执行语义和音素（单词声音）任务，以响应 听到的话。第一个和最后两个实验检查了相似性和 盲人和语言系统组织的差异 视力主题执行非胸甲任务，没有视觉和电动机 性能偏见。此外，这些实验将确定盲文是否 阅读技能反映了功能性皮质变化，这是一般的 体感处理或特定于盲文阅读以及是盲和 视力受试者以类似的方式使用视觉皮层进行非视觉任务。 中间两个实验调查了盲人独有的语言技能 确定这些受试者是否具有根本修改的神经系统或 而是通过不同的访问与视力对象相同的认知系统 感官路线。