Amedi, A. 1, 2
1 Dpt. of Medical Neurobiology, Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada (IMRIC)
2 The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC), Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
About one-quarter of our brain “real estate” is devoted to the processing of vision. So what happens to this vast “vision” part of the brain when no visual input is received? We are working with novel high-tech multisensory ‘glasses’ that convert visual information from a tiny video camera into sensory signals that the blind can interpret. In this talk I will mainly highlight work done using The-vOICe algorithm. We have devised a training program which teaches blind individuals to use such a device. Following approximately ~30 hours of training, congenitally blind individuals can use this device to recognize what and where various objects are, for instance within a room (like a chair, glass, and even people and their body posture). Additional training is given specifically for encouraging free “visual” orientation enabling blind individuals to walk in corridors while avoiding obstacles and applying hand-“eye” coordination (e.g. playing bowling). A main focus of the project is using this unique “set-up” to study brain organization and brain’s flexibility. We have demonstrated that visual training can create massive adult plasticity in the ‘visual’ cortex to process functions like recognizing objects and localizing where they are located, much like the original division of labor in the visual system in which the ventral stream recognize objects and the dorsal stream help to localize them in order to orient action. We also found that reading using a different sense (e.g. Braille) recruit the same structure as in sighted, namely the visual word form area. Such visual cortex recruitment for ‘visual’ processing of soundscapes may greatly promote sight restoration efforts both via such technologies and by training people undergoing clinical procedures to restore vision. This approach might also be relevant, in other cases in which massive adult brain plasticity / flexibility is needed, e.g. after a stroke