Researchers have identified a neural ‘fingerprint’ in blind people that could pave the way for new approaches in sight restoration.
Neuroscientists say that the part of the brain which receives and processes visual information in sighted people develops a unique connectivity pattern in people born blind.
They believe this pattern in the primary visual cortex is unique to each person — akin to a fingerprint.
The findings could have “profound implications for understanding brain development and could help launch personalised rehabilitation and sight restoration strategies”, researchers say.
It has long been understood that the visual cortex in people born blind responds to a range of stimuli, including touch, smell, sound localisation, memory recall and response to language.
However, the lack of a common thread linking the tasks that activate primary areas in the visual cortex has perplexed researchers.
The new Georgetown University study, led by researchers Lenia Amaral, Ella Striem-Amit and Elisabeth Richard von Matsch, provides a compelling explanation; revealing differences in how each individual’s brain organises itself.
“We don’t see this level of variation in the visual cortex connectivity among individuals who can see – the connectivity of the visual cortex is usually fairly consistent,” said Striem-Amit, who leads a sensory and motor plasticity lab at Georgetown.
“The connectivity pattern in people born blind is more different across people, like an individual fingerprint, and is stable over time – so much so that the individual person can be identified from the connectivity pattern.”
The study included a small sample of people born blind who underwent repeated functional MRI scans over two years. The researchers used a neuroimaging technique to analyse neural connectivity across the brain.
“The visual cortex in people born blind showed remarkable stability in its connectivity patterns over time,” Amaral explained.
“Our study found that these patterns did not change significantly based on the task at hand – whether participants were localizing sounds, identifying shapes, or simply resting. Instead, the connectivity patterns were unique to each individual and remained stable over the two-year study period.”
Striem-Amit said: “Our findings suggest that experiences after birth shape the diverse ways our brains can develop, especially if growing up without sight. Brain plasticity in these cases frees the brain to develop, possibly even for different possible uses for the visual cortex among different people born blind.”
The researchers posit that understanding each person’s individual connectivity may be important to better tailor solutions for rehabilitation and sight restoration to individuals with blindness, each based on their own individual brain connectivity pattern.
