Neuroplasticity in adult human visual cortex

NEUROSCIENCE AND BIOBEHAVIORAL REVIEWS

卷:112

Review

Castaldi, Elisa¹  Lunghi, Claudia²  Morrone, Maria Concetta^3,4 

[1] Univ Florence, Dept Neurosci Psychol Pharmacol & Child Hlth, Florence, Italy

[2] PSL Univ, CNRS, Ecole Normale Super, Lab Syst Perceptifs,Dept Etud Cognit, Paris 75005, France

[3] Univ Pisa, Dept Translat Res & New Technol Med & Surg, Pisa, Italy

[4] IRCCS Stella Maris, Pisa, Italy

关键词: 7T fMRI;    Amblyopia;    Binocular rivalry;    Bionic eye;    Blindness;    Cortical excitability;    Critical period;    Cross-modal plasticity;    Retinal prosthesis;    Retinitis pigmentosa;    Short-term monocular deprivation;    Visual restoration;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.02.028

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Between 1-5:100 people worldwide have never experienced normotypic vision due to a condition called amblyopia, and about 1:4000 suffer from inherited retinal dystrophies that progressively lead to blindness. While a wide range of technologies and therapies are being developed to restore vision, a fundamental question still remains unanswered: would the adult visual brain retain a sufficient plastic potential to learn how to 'see' after a prolonged period of abnormal visual experience? In this review we summarize studies showing that the visual brain of sighted adults retains a type of developmental plasticity, called homeostatic plasticity, and this property has been recently exploited successfully for adult amblyopia recovery. Next, we discuss how the brain circuits reorganize when blindness occurs and when visual stimulation is partially restored by means of a 'bionic eye' in late blind adults with Retinitis Pigmentosa. The primary visual cortex in these patients slowly became activated by the artificial visual stimulation, indicating that sight restoration therapies can rely on a considerable degree of spared plasticity in adulthood.

【 授权许可】

Free