Top

Published in:

01-04-2016 | Original Article

Congenital blindness affects diencephalic but not mesencephalic structures in the human brain

Authors: Luca Cecchetti, Emiliano Ricciardi, Giacomo Handjaras, Ron Kupers, Maurice Ptito, Pietro Pietrini

Published in: Brain Structure and Function | Issue 3/2016

Abstract

While there is ample evidence that the structure and function of visual cortical areas are affected by early visual deprivation, little is known of how early blindness modifies subcortical relay and association thalamic nuclei, as well as mesencephalic structures. Therefore, in the present multicenter study, we used MRI to measure volume of the superior and inferior colliculi, as well as of the thalamic nuclei relaying sensory and motor information to the neocortex, parcellated according to atlas-based thalamo-cortical connections, in 29 individuals with congenital blindness of peripheral origin (17 M, age 35.7 ± 14.3 years) and 29 sighted subjects (17 M, age 31.9 ± 9.0). Blind participants showed an overall volume reduction in the left (p = 0.008) and right (p = 0.007) thalami, as compared to the sighted individuals. Specifically, the lateral geniculate (i.e., primary visual thalamic relay nucleus) was 40 % reduced (left: p = 4 × 10⁻⁶, right: p < 1 × 10⁻⁶), consistent with findings from animal studies. In addition, associated thalamic nuclei that project to temporal (left: p = 0.005, right: p = 0.005), prefrontal (left: p = 0.010, right: p = 0.014), occipital (left: p = 0.005, right: p = 0.023), and right premotor (p = 0.024) cortical regions were also significantly reduced in the congenitally blind group. Conversely, volumes of the relay nuclei directly involved in auditory, motor, and somatosensory processing were not affected by visual deprivation. In contrast, no difference in volume was observed in either the superior or the inferior colliculus between the two groups. Our findings indicate that visual loss since birth leads to selective volumetric changes within diencephalic, but not mesencephalic, structures. Both changes in reciprocal cortico-thalamic connections or modifications in the intrinsic connectivity between relay and association nuclei of the thalamus may contribute to explain these alterations in thalamic volumes. Sparing of the superior colliculi is in line with their composite, multisensory projections, and with their not exclusive visual nature.

Available only for authorised users

Andrews TJ, Halpern SD, Purves D (1997) Correlated size variations in human visual cortex, lateral geniculate nucleus, and optic tract. J Neurosci 17:2859–2868PubMed

Barnes GR, Li X, Thompson B, Singh KD, Dumoulin SO, Hess RF (2010) Decreased gray matter concentration in the lateral geniculate nuclei in human amblyopes. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 51:1432–1438. doi:10.1167/iovs.09-3931 PubMedCrossRef

Bavelier D, Neville HJ (2002) Cross-modal plasticity: where and how? Nat Rev Neurosci 3:443–452. doi:10.1038/nrn848 PubMed

Behrens TE et al (2003) Non-invasive mapping of connections between human thalamus and cortex using diffusion imaging. Nat Neurosci 6:750–757. doi:10.1038/nn1075 PubMedCrossRef

Benjamini Y, Hochberg Y (1995) Controlling the false discovery rate: a practical and powerful approach to multiple testing. J R Stat Soc B 57:289–300

Berardi N, Pizzorusso T, Maffei L (2000) Critical periods during sensory development. Curr Opin Neurobiol 10:138–145PubMedCrossRef

Bonino D et al (2008) Tactile spatial working memory activates the dorsal extrastriate cortical pathway in congenitally blind individuals. Arch Ital Biol 146:133–146PubMed

Bridge H, Cowey A, Ragge N, Watkins K (2009) Imaging studies in congenital anophthalmia reveal preservation of brain architecture in ‘visual’ cortex. Brain 132:3467–3480. doi:10.1093/brain/awp279 PubMedCrossRef

Burgel U, Schormann T, Schleicher A, Zilles K (1999) Mapping of histologically identified long fiber tracts in human cerebral hemispheres to the MRI volume of a reference brain: position and spatial variability of the optic radiation. NeuroImage 10:489–499. doi:10.1006/nimg.1999.0497 PubMedCrossRef

Burgel U, Amunts K, Hoemke L, Mohlberg H, Gilsbach JM, Zilles K (2006) White matter fiber tracts of the human brain: three-dimensional mapping at microscopic resolution, topography and intersubject variability. NeuroImage 29:1092–1105. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2005.08.040 PubMedCrossRef

Burnett LR, Stein BE, Chaponis D, Wallace MT (2004) Superior colliculus lesions preferentially disrupt multisensory orientation. Neuroscience 124:535–547. doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2003.12.026 PubMedCrossRef

Cappe C, Morel A, Barone P, Rouiller EM (2009) The thalamocortical projection systems in primate: an anatomical support for multisensory and sensorimotor interplay. Cereb Cortex 19:2025–2037. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhn228 PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Cattaneo Z, Vecchi T, Cornoldi C, Mammarella I, Bonino D, Ricciardi E, Pietrini P (2008) Imagery and spatial processes in blindness and visual impairment. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 32:1346–1360. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2008.05.002 PubMedCrossRef

Chabot N, Robert S, Tremblay R, Miceli D, Boire D, Bronchti G (2007) Audition differently activates the visual system in neonatally enucleated mice compared with anophthalmic mutants. Eur J Neurosci 26:2334–2348. doi:10.1111/j.1460-9568.2007.05854.x PubMedCrossRef

Chebat DR, Chen JK, Schneider F, Ptito A, Kupers R, Ptito M (2007) Alterations in right posterior hippocampus in early blind individuals. NeuroReport 18:329–333. doi:10.1097/WNR.0b013e32802b70f8 PubMedCrossRef

Chen Z, Wang J, Lin F, Dai H, Mu K, Zhang H (2013) Correlation between lateral geniculate nucleus atrophy and damage to the optic disc in glaucoma. J Neuroradiol 40:281–287. doi:10.1016/j.neurad.2012.10.004 PubMedCrossRef

Collignon O, Dormal G, Albouy G, Vandewalle G, Voss P, Phillips C, Lepore F (2013) Impact of blindness onset on the functional organization and the connectivity of the occipital cortex. Brain 136:2769–2783. doi:10.1093/brain/awt176 PubMedCrossRef

Crish SD, Dengler-Crish CM, Catania KC (2006) Central visual system of the naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber). Anat Record Part A Discov Mol Cell Evol Biol 288:205–212. doi:10.1002/ar.a.20288 CrossRef

Cullen MJ, Kaiserman-Abramof IR (1976) Cytological organization of the dorsal lateral geniculate nuclei in mutant anophthalmic and postnatally enucleated mice. J Neurocytol 5:407–424PubMedCrossRef

Dai H et al (2011) Assessment of lateral geniculate nucleus atrophy with 3T MR imaging and correlation with clinical stage of glaucoma. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 32:1347–1353. doi:10.3174/ajnr.A2486 PubMedCrossRef

Desgent S, Ptito M (2012) Cortical GABAergic interneurons in cross-modal plasticity following early blindness. Neural Plasticity 2012:590725. doi:10.1155/2012/590725 PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

DuBois RM, Cohen MS (2000) Spatiotopic organization in human superior colliculus observed with fMRI. NeuroImage 12:63–70. doi:10.1006/nimg.2000.0590 PubMedCrossRef

Ehrsson HH (2007) The experimental induction of out-of-body experiences. Science 317:1048. doi:10.1126/science.1142175 PubMedCrossRef

Eickhoff SB, Stephan KE, Mohlberg H, Grefkes C, Fink GR, Amunts K, Zilles K (2005) A new SPM toolbox for combining probabilistic cytoarchitectonic maps and functional imaging data. NeuroImage 25:1325–1335. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2004.12.034 PubMedCrossRef

Felleman DJ, Van Essen DC (1991) Distributed hierarchical processing in the primate cerebral cortex. Cereb Cortex 1:1–47PubMedCrossRef

Fonov V, Evans AC, Botteron K, Almli CR, McKinstry RC, Collins DL, Brain Development Cooperative Group (2011) Unbiased average age-appropriate atlases for pediatric studies. NeuroImage 54:313–327. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.07.033 PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Fortin M et al (2008) Wayfinding in the blind: larger hippocampal volume and supranormal spatial navigation. Brain 131:2995–3005. doi:10.1093/brain/awn250 PubMedCrossRef

Frost DO, Boire D, Gingras G, Ptito M (2000) Surgically created neural pathways mediate visual pattern discrimination. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 97:11068–11073. doi:10.1073/pnas.190179997 PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Ghazanfar AA, Schroeder CE (2006) Is neocortex essentially multisensory? Trends Cogn Sci 10:278–285. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2006.04.008 PubMedCrossRef

Gupta N, Greenberg G, de Tilly LN, Gray B, Polemidiotis M, Yucel YH (2009) Atrophy of the lateral geniculate nucleus in human glaucoma detected by magnetic resonance imaging. Br J Ophthalmol 93:56–60. doi:10.1136/bjo.2008.138172 PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Headon MP, Powell TP (1973) Cellular changes in the lateral geniculate nucleus of infant monkeys after suture of the eyelids. J Anat 116:135–145PubMedPubMedCentral

Heil P, Bronchti G, Wollberg Z, Scheich H (1991) Invasion of visual cortex by the auditory system in the naturally blind mole rat. NeuroReport 2:735–738PubMedCrossRef

Hendelman WJ (2005) Atlas of functional neuroanatomy, 2nd edn. CRC Press, Boca RatonCrossRef

Hernowo AT, Boucard CC, Jansonius NM, Hooymans JM, Cornelissen FW (2011) Automated morphometry of the visual pathway in primary open-angle glaucoma. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 52:2758–2766. doi:10.1167/iovs.10-5682 PubMedCrossRef

Heumann D, Rabinowicz T (1980) Postnatal development of the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus in the normal and enucleated albino mouse. Exp Brain Res 38:75–85PubMedCrossRef

Hilbig H, Bidmon HJ, Zilles K, Busecke K (1999) Neuronal and glial structures of the superficial layers of the human superior colliculus. Anat Embryol 200:103–115PubMedCrossRef

Iglesias JE, Liu CY, Thompson PM, Tu Z (2011) Robust brain extraction across datasets and comparison with publicly available methods. IEEE Trans Med Imaging 30:1617–1634. doi:10.1109/TMI.2011.2138152 PubMedCrossRef

Ioannides AA, Liu L, Poghosyan V, Saridis GA, Gjedde A, Ptito M, Kupers R (2013) MEG reveals a fast pathway from somatosensory cortex to occipital areas via posterior parietal cortex in a blind subject. Front Hum Neurosci 7:429. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2013.00429 PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Jenkinson M, Bannister P, Brady M, Smith S (2002) Improved optimization for the robust and accurate linear registration and motion correction of brain images. NeuroImage 17:825–841PubMedCrossRef

Jenkinson M, Beckmann CF, Behrens TE, Woolrich MW, Smith SM (2012) Fsl. NeuroImage 62:782–790. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.09.015 PubMedCrossRef

Jiang J et al (2009) Thick visual cortex in the early blind. J Neurosci 29:2205–2211. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5451-08.2009 PubMedCrossRef

Johansen-Berg H, Behrens TE, Sillery E, Ciccarelli O, Thompson AJ, Smith SM, Matthews PM (2005) Functional-anatomical validation and individual variation of diffusion tractography-based segmentation of the human thalamus. Cereb Cortex 15:31–39. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhh105 PubMedCrossRef

Kahn DM, Krubitzer L (2002) Retinofugal projections in the short-tailed opossum (Monodelphis domestica). J Comp Neurol 447:114–127. doi:10.1002/cne.10206 PubMedCrossRef

Kang DH, Kwon KW, Gu BM, Choi JS, Jang JH, Kwon JS (2008) Structural abnormalities of the right inferior colliculus in schizophrenia. Psychiatry Res 164:160–165. doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2007.12.023 PubMedCrossRef

Karlen SJ, Krubitzer L (2009) Effects of bilateral enucleation on the size of visual and nonvisual areas of the brain. Cereb Cortex 19:1360–1371. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhn176 PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Karlen SJ, Kahn DM, Krubitzer L (2006) Early blindness results in abnormal corticocortical and thalamocortical connections. Neuroscience 142:843–858. doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2006.06.055 PubMedCrossRef

Katyal S, Zughni S, Greene C, Ress D (2010) Topography of covert visual attention in human superior colliculus. J Neurophysiol 104:3074–3083. doi:10.1152/jn.00283.2010 PubMedCrossRef

Klinge C, Eippert F, Roder B, Buchel C (2010) Corticocortical connections mediate primary visual cortex responses to auditory stimulation in the blind. J Neurosci 30:12798–12805. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2384-10.2010 PubMedCrossRef

Korsholm K, Madsen KH, Frederiksen JL, Skimminge A, Lund TE (2007) Recovery from optic neuritis: an ROI-based analysis of LGN and visual cortical areas. Brain 130:1244–1253. doi:10.1093/brain/awm045 PubMedCrossRef

Krebs RM et al (2010) High-field FMRI reveals brain activation patterns underlying saccade execution in the human superior colliculus. PLoS ONE 5:e8691. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008691 PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Kupers R, Ptito M (2011) Insights from darkness: what the study of blindness has taught us about brain structure and function. Prog Brain Res 192:17–31. doi:10.1016/B978-0-444-53355-5.00002-6 PubMedCrossRef

Kupers R, Ptito M (2014) Compensatory plasticity and cross-modal reorganization following early visual deprivation. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 41:36–52. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2013.08.001 PubMedCrossRef

Kupers R, Fumal A, de Noordhout AM, Gjedde A, Schoenen J, Ptito M (2006) Transcranial magnetic stimulation of the visual cortex induces somatotopically organized qualia in blind subjects. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 103:13256–13260. doi:10.1073/pnas.0602925103 PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Kupers R, Beaulieu-Lefebvre M, Schneider FC, Kassuba T, Paulson OB, Siebner HR, Ptito M (2011) Neural correlates of olfactory processing in congenital blindness. Neuropsychologia 49:2037–2044. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.03.033 PubMedCrossRef

Lee JY et al (2014) An investigation of lateral geniculate nucleus volume in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma using 7 tesla magnetic resonance imaging. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 55:3468–3476. doi:10.1167/iovs.14-13902 PubMedCrossRef

Leh SE, Johansen-Berg H, Ptito A (2006) Unconscious vision: new insights into the neuronal correlate of blindsight using diffusion tractography. Brain 129:1822–1832. doi:10.1093/brain/awl111 PubMedCrossRef

Leh SE, Ptito A, Schonwiesner M, Chakravarty MM, Mullen KT (2010) Blindsight mediated by an S-cone-independent collicular pathway: an fMRI study in hemispherectomized subjects. J Cogn Neurosci 22:670–682. doi:10.1162/jocn.2009.21217 PubMedCrossRef

Leo A, Bernardi G, Handjaras G, Bonino D, Ricciardi E, Pietrini P (2012) Increased BOLD variability in the parietal cortex and enhanced parieto-occipital connectivity during tactile perception in congenitally blind individuals. Neural Plasticity 2012:720278. doi:10.1155/2012/720278 PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Lepore N et al (2009) Pattern of hippocampal shape and volume differences in blind subjects. NeuroImage 46:949–957. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.01.071 PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Lepore N et al (2010) Brain structure changes visualized in early- and late-onset blind subjects. NeuroImage 49:134–140. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.07.048 PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Li M et al (2012) Quantification of the human lateral geniculate nucleus in vivo using MR imaging based on morphometry: volume loss with age. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 33:915–921. doi:10.3174/ajnr.A2884 PubMedCrossRef

Limbrick-Oldfield EH, Brooks JC, Wise RJ, Padormo F, Hajnal JV, Beckmann CF, Ungless MA (2012) Identification and characterisation of midbrain nuclei using optimised functional magnetic resonance imaging. NeuroImage 59:1230–1238. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.08.016 PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Liu Y et al (2007) Whole brain functional connectivity in the early blind. Brain 130:2085–2096. doi:10.1093/brain/awm121 PubMedCrossRef

Lund RD, Lund JS (1971) Synaptic adjustment after deafferentation of the superior colliculus of the rat. Science 171:804–807PubMedCrossRef

Masucci EF, Borts FT, Perl SM, Wener L, Schwankhaus J, Kurtzke JF (1995) MR vs CT in progressive supranuclear palsy Computerized medical imaging and graphics : the official journal of the Computerized Medical Imaging Society 19:361–368CrossRef

May PJ (2006) The mammalian superior colliculus: laminar structure and connections. Prog Brain Res 151:321–378. doi:10.1016/S0079-6123(05)51011-2 PubMedCrossRef

Merabet LB, Pascual-Leone A (2010) Neural reorganization following sensory loss: the opportunity of change. Nat Rev Neurosci 11:44–52. doi:10.1038/nrn2758 PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Naidich TP, Duvernoy HM, Delman BN, Sorensen AG, Kollias SS, Haacke EM (2009) Duvernoy’s atlas of the human brain stem and cerebellum. Springer, WienCrossRef

Nichols TE, Holmes AP (2002) Nonparametric permutation tests for functional neuroimaging: a primer with examples. Hum Brain Mapp 15:1–25PubMedCrossRef

Noppeney U (2007) The effects of visual deprivation on functional and structural organization of the human brain. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 31:1169–1180. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2007.04.012 PubMedCrossRef

Noppeney U, Friston KJ, Ashburner J, Frackowiak R, Price CJ (2005) Early visual deprivation induces structural plasticity in gray and white matter. Curr Biol 15:R488–490. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2005.06.053 PubMedCrossRef

Pan WJ, Wu G, Li CX, Lin F, Sun J, Lei H (2007) Progressive atrophy in the optic pathway and visual cortex of early blind Chinese adults: a voxel-based morphometry magnetic resonance imaging study. NeuroImage 37:212–220. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.05.014 PubMedCrossRef

Park HJ, Lee JD, Kim EY, Park B, Oh MK, Lee S, Kim JJ (2009) Morphological alterations in the congenital blind based on the analysis of cortical thickness and surface area. NeuroImage 47:98–106. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.03.076 PubMedCrossRef

Patenaude B, Smith SM, Kennedy DN, Jenkinson M (2011) A Bayesian model of shape and appearance for subcortical brain segmentation. NeuroImage 56:907–922. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.02.046 PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Pavani F, Spence C, Driver J (2000) Visual capture of touch: out-of-the-body experiences with rubber gloves. Psychol Sci 11:353–359PubMedCrossRef

Pietrini P et al (2004) Beyond sensory images: object-based representation in the human ventral pathway. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101:5658–5663. doi:10.1073/pnas.0400707101 PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Ptito M, Desgent S (2006) Sensory Input-Based Adaptation and Brain Architecture. In: Baltes PB, Reuter-Lorenz PA, Rosler F (eds) Lifespan development and the brain. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 111–133CrossRef

Ptito M, Kupers R (2005) Cross-modal plasticity in early blindness. J Integr Neurosci 4:479–488PubMedCrossRef

Ptito M, Moesgaard SM, Gjedde A, Kupers R (2005) Cross-modal plasticity revealed by electrotactile stimulation of the tongue in the congenitally blind. Brain 128:606–614. doi:10.1093/brain/awh380 PubMedCrossRef

Ptito M, Schneider FC, Paulson OB, Kupers R (2008) Alterations of the visual pathways in congenital blindness. Exp Brain Res 187:41–49. doi:10.1007/s00221-008-1273-4 PubMedCrossRef

Qin W, Xuan Y, Liu Y, Jiang T, Yu C (2014) Functional connectivity density in congenitally and late blind subjects. Cereb Cortex. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhu051 PubMed

Rademacher J, Burgel U, Zilles K (2002) Stereotaxic localization, intersubject variability, and interhemispheric differences of the human auditory thalamocortical system. NeuroImage 17:142–160PubMedCrossRef

Rhoades RW (1980) Effects of neonatal enucleation on the functional organization of the superior colliculus in the golden hamster. J Physiol 301:383–399PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Ricciardi E, Pietrini P (2011) New light from the dark: what blindness can teach us about brain function. Curr Opin Neurol 24:357–363. doi:10.1097/WCO.0b013e328348bdbf PubMedCrossRef

Ricciardi E et al (2007) The effect of visual experience on the development of functional architecture in hMT+. Cereb Cortex 17:2933–2939. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhm018 PubMedCrossRef

Ricciardi E et al (2009) Do we really need vision? How blind people “see” the actions of others. J Neurosci 29:9719–9724. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0274-09.2009 PubMedCrossRef

Ricciardi E, Handjaras G, Bonino D, Vecchi T, Fadiga L, Pietrini P (2013) Beyond motor scheme: a supramodal distributed representation in the action-observation network. PLoS ONE 8:e58632. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0058632 PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Ricciardi E, Bonino D, Pellegrini S, Pietrini P (2014) Mind the blind brain to understand the sighted one! Is there a supramodal cortical functional architecture? Neurosci Biobehav Rev 41:64–77. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2013.10.006 PubMedCrossRef

Sabanciogullari V, Salk I, Balaban H, Oztoprak I, Kelkit S, Cimen M (2013) Magnetic resonance imaging mesencephalic tectum dimensions according to age and gender. Neurosciences 18:33–39PubMed

Sakakura H, Iwama K (1967) Effects of bilateral eye enucleation upon single unit activity of the lateral geniculate body in free behaving cats. Brain Res 6:667–678PubMedCrossRef

Schiller PH (1977) The effect of superior colliculus ablation on saccades elicted by cortical stimulation. Brain Res 122:154–156PubMedCrossRef

Schmid B, Schindelin J, Cardona A, Longair M, Heisenberg M (2010) A high-level 3D visualization API for Java and ImageJ. BMC Bioinform 11:274. doi:10.1186/1471-2105-11-274 CrossRef

Schneider KA, Kastner S (2009) Effects of sustained spatial attention in the human lateral geniculate nucleus and superior colliculus. J Neurosci 29:1784–1795. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4452-08.2009 PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Sharma J, Angelucci A, Sur M (2000) Induction of visual orientation modules in auditory cortex. Nature 404:841–847. doi:10.1038/35009043 PubMedCrossRef

Sherman JL, Citrin CM, Barkovich AJ, Bowen BJ (1987) MR imaging of the mesencephalic tectum: normal and pathologic variations. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 8:59–64PubMed

Shimony JS, Burton H, Epstein AA, McLaren DG, Sun SW, Snyder AZ (2006) Diffusion tensor imaging reveals white matter reorganization in early blind humans. Cereb Cortex 16:1653–1661. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhj102 PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Shu N, Liu Y, Li J, Li Y, Yu C, Jiang T (2009) Altered anatomical network in early blindness revealed by diffusion tensor tractography. PLoS ONE 4:e7228. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0007228 PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Smith SA, Bedi KS (1997) Unilateral eye enucleation in adult rats causes neuronal loss in the contralateral superior colliculus. J Anat 190(Pt 4):481–490PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Smith SM, Nichols TE (2009) Threshold-free cluster enhancement: addressing problems of smoothing, threshold dependence and localisation in cluster inference. NeuroImage 44:83–98. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2008.03.061 PubMedCrossRef

Smith SM et al (2004) Advances in functional and structural MR image analysis and implementation as FSL. NeuroImage 23(Suppl 1):S208–219. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2004.07.051 PubMedCrossRef

Sparks DL, Hartwich-Young R (1989) The deep layers of the superior colliculus. Rev Oculomot Res 3:213–255PubMed

Sur M, Garraghty PE, Roe AW (1988) Experimentally induced visual projections into auditory thalamus and cortex. Science 242:1437–1441PubMedCrossRef

Sylvester R, Josephs O, Driver J, Rees G (2007) Visual FMRI responses in human superior colliculus show a temporal-nasal asymmetry that is absent in lateral geniculate and visual cortex. J Neurophysiol 97:1495–1502. doi:10.1152/jn.00835.2006 PubMedCrossRef

Theoret H, Boire D, Herbin M, Ptito M (2001) Anatomical sparing in the superior colliculus of hemispherectomized monkeys. Brain Res 894:274–280PubMedCrossRef

Tiao YC, Blakemore C (1976) Functional organization in the superior colliculus of the golden hamster. J Comp Neurol 168:483–503. doi:10.1002/cne.901680404 PubMedCrossRef

Tomaiuolo F et al (2014) Morphometric changes of the corpus callosum in congenital blindness. PLoS ONE 9:e107871. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0107871 PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Trampel R, Ott DV, Turner R (2011) Do the congenitally blind have a stria of Gennari? First intracortical insights in vivo. Cereb Cortex 21:2075–2081. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhq282 PubMedCrossRef

Van Essen DC, Drury HA, Dickson J, Harwell J, Hanlon D, Anderson CH (2001) An integrated software suite for surface-based analyses of cerebral cortex. J Am Med Inf Assoc JAMIA 8:443–459CrossRef

von Melchner L, Pallas SL, Sur M (2000) Visual behaviour mediated by retinal projections directed to the auditory pathway. Nature 404:871–876. doi:10.1038/35009102 CrossRef

Wallace MT, Stein BE (1994) Cross-modal synthesis in the midbrain depends on input from cortex. J Neurophysiol 71:429–432PubMed

Wallace MT, Wilkinson LK, Stein BE (1996) Representation and integration of multiple sensory inputs in primate superior colliculus. J Neurophysiol 76:1246–1266PubMed

Wang D, Qin W, Liu Y, Zhang Y, Jiang T, Yu C (2014) Altered resting-state network connectivity in congenital blind. Hum Brain Mapp 35:2573–2581. doi:10.1002/hbm.22350 PubMedCrossRef

Warmuth-Metz M, Naumann M, Csoti I, Solymosi L (2001) Measurement of the midbrain diameter on routine magnetic resonance imaging: a simple and accurate method of differentiating between Parkinson disease and progressive supranuclear palsy. Arch Neurol 58:1076–1079PubMedCrossRef

White BJ, Munoz DP (2011) The superior colliculus. In: Liversedge S, Gilchrist I, Everling S (eds) Oxford handbook of eye movements, 1st edn. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 195–213

Winer JA (1984) The human medial geniculate body. Hear Res 15:225–247PubMedCrossRef

Winkler AM et al (2012) Measuring and comparing brain cortical surface area and other areal quantities. NeuroImage 61:1428–1443. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.03.026 PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Yu C, Shu N, Li J, Qin W, Jiang T, Li K (2007) Plasticity of the corticospinal tract in early blindness revealed by quantitative analysis of fractional anisotropy based on diffusion tensor tractography. NeuroImage 36:411–417. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.03.003 PubMedCrossRef

Zhang Y, Brady M, Smith S (2001) Segmentation of brain MR images through a hidden Markov random field model and the expectation-maximization algorithm. IEEE Trans Med Imaging 20:45–57. doi:10.1109/42.906424 PubMedCrossRef

Zhang D, Snyder AZ, Fox MD, Sansbury MW, Shimony JS, Raichle ME (2008) Intrinsic functional relations between human cerebral cortex and thalamus. J Neurophysiol 100:1740–1748. doi:10.1152/jn.90463.2008 PubMedPubMedCentralCrossRef

Zvorykin VP (1980) New data on individual quantitative features of the human lateral geniculate body. Arkhiv anatomii gistologii i embriologii 78:24–27

Title: Congenital blindness affects diencephalic but not mesencephalic structures in the human brain
Authors: Luca Cecchetti
Emiliano Ricciardi
Giacomo Handjaras
Ron Kupers
Maurice Ptito
Pietro Pietrini
Publication date: 01-04-2016
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in: Brain Structure and Function / Issue 3/2016
Print ISSN: 1863-2653
Electronic ISSN: 1863-2661
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-014-0984-5

At a glance: The ONWARDS insulin icodec trials

Springer Medicine

Congenital blindness affects diencephalic but not mesencephalic structures in the human brain

Abstract

At a glance: The ONWARDS insulin icodec trials

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Please log in to get access to this content

Other articles of this Issue 3/2016

Optogenetic inhibition of cortical afferents in the nucleus accumbens simultaneously prevents cue-induced transient synaptic potentiation and cocaine-seeking behavior

Interactions of early adversity with stress-related gene polymorphisms impact regional brain structure in females

Erratum to: Anosmin-1 over-expression regulates oligodendrocyte precursor cell proliferation, migration and myelin sheath thickness

Thalamic projections to visual and visuomotor areas (V6 and V6A) in the Rostral Bank of the parieto-occipital sulcus of the Macaque

Dissociable attentional and inhibitory networks of dorsal and ventral areas of the right inferior frontal cortex: a combined task-specific and coordinate-based meta-analytic fMRI study

Brain intracellular metabolites are freely diffusing along cell fibers in grey and white matter, as measured by diffusion-weighted MR spectroscopy in the human brain at 7 T