• Long-term visual-to-tactile st...

Treffer: Long-term visual-to-tactile stimulation induces functional reorganization of thalamic pathways to achieve visual perception.

Title:
Long-term visual-to-tactile stimulation induces functional reorganization of thalamic pathways to achieve visual perception.
Authors:
Ortiz-Teran E; Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain; Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universidad Antonio de Nebrija, Madrid, Spain., Ortiz-Teran L; UMASS Memorial Medical Center, UMASS Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA., Perez DL; Mass General Brigham Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA., Ortiz T; Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain., Diez I; Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA; Computational Neuroimaging Lab, Biobizkaia Health Reseach Institute, Barakaldo, Spain; IKERBASQUE Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Spain; Center for Inflammation Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: idiezpalacio@mgh.harvard.edu.
Source:
NeuroImage [Neuroimage] 2026 Jan; Vol. 325, pp. 121652. Date of Electronic Publication: 2025 Dec 15.
Publication Type:
Journal Article
Language:
English
Journal Info:
Publisher: Academic Press Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 9215515 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1095-9572 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 10538119 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Neuroimage Subsets: MEDLINE
Imprint Name(s):
Original Publication: Orlando, FL : Academic Press, c1992-
MeSH Terms:
Neuronal Plasticity*/physiology , Visual Perception*/physiology , Touch Perception*/physiology , Blindness*/physiopathology , Blindness*/rehabilitation , Thalamus*/physiology , Thalamic Nuclei*/physiology, Humans ; Male ; Female ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Child ; Neural Pathways/physiology ; Sensory Aids
Contributed Indexing:
Keywords: Blindness; Brain plasticity; Sensory substitution device; Visual perception; fMRI
Entry Date(s):
Date Created: 20251217 Date Completed: 20260112 Latest Revision: 20260112
Update Code:
20260113
DOI:
10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121652
PMID:
41407217
Database:
MEDLINE

Weitere Informationen

Sensory substitution devices (SSDs) have shown promising results in restoring basic visual function in blind subjects by translating visual information into tactile stimuli. However, the specific neuroplastic changes enabling this process remain poorly defined. Although cross-modal plasticity has been widely described through a range of intermediate cortical steps from somatosensory regions to the primary visual cortex, the brain's ability to search for a direct route makes the thalamo-occipital pathway the most viable reorganization option after long-term passive tactile stimulation. In this study, we use resting-state fMRI to investigate whether SSD training could redirect functional connections from the somatosensory thalamic nuclei to the primary occipital areas. After 6 months of training, blind children showed increased connectivity between the somatosensory thalamic nuclei and the occipital regions. This stronger connectivity was associated with improved performance in identifying tactile stimuli. These findings support the hypothesis that long-term passive tactile training leads to subcortical functional reorganization rather than cortical changes. Specifically, the results showed an increase in connectivity between somatosensorial and multimodal integration thalamic nuclei and the visual cortical regions.
(Copyright © 2025. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Declaration of competing interest D.L.P. has received royalties from Springer Nature and funding from the NIH and Sidney R. Baer Jr. Foundation unrelated to this work. All other authors declare that they have no competing interests.