[blindza] Fw: Neural and behavioral correlates of ?seeing? without visual input using auditory-to-visual sensory substitution in blind and sighted: a combined fMRI-TMS study

  • From: "Jacob Kruger" <jacobk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "NAPSA Blind" <blind@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2010 23:41:14 +0200

----- Original Message ----- Hi All,


Appended is the published abstract of the September 2010 progress report
of a European project on auditory-to-visual sensory substitution, run by
the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Best wishes,

Peter Meijer


Seeing with Sound - The vOICe
http://www.seeingwithsound.com/winvoice.htm


Periodic Report 2 - Seeing with sounds.

Neural and behavioral correlates of ‘seeing’ without visual input using
auditory-to-visual sensory substitution in blind and sighted: a combined
fMRI-TMS study.

Quality validation date:2010-09-07.

Abstract.

Specific background, research objectives and specific aims.

In the visual system, two parallel processing streams exist: the "dorsal
pathway" appears to be primarily concerned with the analysis of the spatial
aspects of visual scenes and visually-guided hand movements, while the "ventral stream" is focused with processing information related to the identification of
objects and faces. Using the vOICe visual-to-auditory sensory substitution
device (SSD), which transform visual images taken by a webcam into sounds
preserving this visual information we aim to: (1) understand more fully the
neural basis of visual-to-auditory transformation in sighted and blind
individuals for object recognition and localization. (2) Improve sight
restoration efforts using SSDs and the vOICe in specific by: a) making it more useful as a stand-alone SSD for blind individuals and b) optimizing its utility
for neuro-ophthalmology rehabilitation in sight restoration situations. This
includes developing better training schemes for using the vOICe to achieve
better performance for 'visual' functions and improvement of the device based on
input from our research.

So far we have devised a training program which teaches congenitally blind
individuals (and sighted controls) to view and interpret pictures and streaming
visual information transformed via the vOICe SSD to sounds. Participants are
trained in a standardized manner to recognize shapes of items of growing visual complexity, from simple lines to line drawings and to real-life objects, people and environments and their locations in space. For this training program we also developed tactile feedback of static images and a verbal explanation of online
visual experiences to the blind participants, who are gradually, taught the
basic visual principles of 2- and 3-dimentional visual percepts. All of our
blind individuals achieved impressive results and are able to recognize, objects and their locations even in a real life scenario recognizing people and objects (like a chair, glass, bottle) even within complex scene like a room he entered.

The careful construction of this training paradigm also provided us with the
ability to study the neural networks involved in audio-visual transformations in the sighted and blind brains, and the plasticity generated by exercising such
transformations, using neuroimaging before, during and in the end of the
training. Preliminary neuroimaging findings show that both sighted and blind
individuals appear to utilize their highly-specialized visual system
architecture for analyzing visual-to-auditory transformation. We observe a clear
differentiation between ventral stream preference for object recognition and
dorsal stream preference for localization in both groups. Blind show additional recruitment of visual cortex. These findings have far reaching implications in
term of the metamodal organization of the brain and its ability for plastic
changes in the adult brain even after many years of blindness.

We plan continue to explore the short term versus the long-term plastic changes resulting from the use of SSDs and to look also for object category specificity.
Finally, the ability to revert the occipital cortex to visual perception in
adult blind individuals has far-reaching academic and clinical implications in
sight restoration. Sight restoration following years of blindness, and
particularly after early-onset blindness may only be possible by teaching the blind brain to process the novel percepts, as the visual system development may
critically depend upon visual input for normal functional development.
Demonstrating that visual training can achieve adult plasticity and visual
cortex recruitment for visual processing may greatly promote sight restoration both via SSDs and by training people undergoing artificial retina transplant or
visual neuroprostheses in the future. More information on the project can be
found in the lab website under http://brain.huji.ac.il/…;

Collaboration sought: N/A.

Source of support: CEC.

Source URL:
http://cordis.europa.eu/search/index.cfm?fuseaction=result.document&RS_LANG=EN&RS_RCN=11485506&q=B133CA365DF550B61326721172FC4431&pid=3&type=sim


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  • » [blindza] Fw: Neural and behavioral correlates of ?seeing? without visual input using auditory-to-visual sensory substitution in blind and sighted: a combined fMRI-TMS study - Jacob Kruger