BRAILLE READING & ADAPTIVE PLASTICITY IN THE HUMAN BRAIN

盲文阅读

• 批准号: 6931759
• 负责人: Harold Burton
• 金额: $ 6.72万
• 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 2005-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6931759
• 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）盲文阅读是一种非凡的 人类大脑在失去知觉后采取补偿策略的例子 重要功能，即语言的视觉输入。我们建议使用全脑 先天性失明、晚发性的功能磁共振成像 (fMRI) 盲人和视力正常的受试者研究感觉的功能解剖学 以及盲文阅读背后的认知过程。这些研究解决了 关于盲人是否表现出更强的处理能力的争论正在进行中 非视觉信息以及这些变化是否是大脑的例子 适应性可塑性。这些实验的核心问题是 研究体感、视觉和语言领域可能发生的变化 促进盲人流畅阅读盲文的大脑。 我们提出了六个连锁实验，依次涉及被动 体感、主动触觉（触觉）和语言任务。前两个 实验重点关注对被动、受控体感刺激的反应 在盲人和视力正常的受试者中。这些研究涉及触觉歧视 任务和识别凸起大写字母的低级词汇任务。 中间的两个实验研究盲人受试者主动阅读盲文，首先 重点是触觉模式识别，然后是更高层次的语义 （词义）。最后两个实验再次涉及盲人和视力正常的人 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相似性和 盲人和盲人的感觉和语言系统组织存在差异 视力正常的受试者执行非盲文任务，没有视觉和运动能力 性能偏差。此外，这些实验将确定盲文是否 阅读技能反映了一般的功能性皮层变化 体感处理或特定于盲文阅读以及是否盲人和 视力正常的受试者以类似的方式使用视觉皮层来执行非视觉任务。 中间的两个实验研究盲人特有的语言技能 确定这些受试者是否从根本上改变了神经系统或 相反，通过不同的人访问与有视力的受试者相同的认知系统 感官路线。