Rapid plasticity in the ventral visual stream elicited by a newly learnt auditory script in congenitally blind adults.

Accumulating evidence in the last decades has given rise to a new theory of brain organization, positing that cortical regions are recruited for specific tasks irrespective of the sensory modality via which information is channeled. For instance, the visual reading network has been shown to be recruited for reading via the tactile Braille code in congenitally blind adults. Yet, how rapidly non-typical sensory input modulates activity in typically visual regions is yet to be explored.

Face shape processing visual-to-auditory sensory substitution activates regions within the face processing networks in the absence of visual experience.

Previous evidence suggests that visual experience is crucial for the emergence and tuning of the typical neural system for face recognition. To challenge this conclusion, we trained congenitally blind adults to recognize faces visual-to-auditory sensory-substitution (SDD). Our results showed a preference for trained faces over other SSD-conveyed visual categories in the fusiform gyrus and in other known face-responsive-regions of the deprived ventral visual stream.

Congenitally blind adults can learn to identify face-shapes via auditory sensory substitution and successfully generalize some of the learned features.

Unlike sighted individuals, congenitally blind individuals have little to no experience with face shapes. Instead, they rely on non-shape cues, such as voices, to perform character identification. The extent to which face-shape perception can be learned in adulthood via a different sensory modality (i.

The sound of reading: Color-to-timbre substitution boosts reading performance via OVAL, a novel auditory orthography optimized for visual-to-auditory mapping.

Reading is a unique human cognitive skill and its acquisition was proven to extensively affect both brain organization and neuroanatomy. Differently from western sighted individuals, literacy rates via tactile reading systems, such as Braille, are declining, thus imposing an alarming threat to literacy among non-visual readers. This decline is due to many reasons including the length of training needed to master Braille, which must also include extensive tactile sensitivity exercises, the lack of proper Braille instruction and the high costs of Braille devices.

Cross-sensory transfer of sensory-motor information: visuomotor learning affects performance on an audiomotor task, using sensory-substitution.

Visual-to-auditory sensory-substitution devices allow users to perceive a visual image using sound. Using a motor-learning task, we found that new sensory-motor information was generalized across sensory modalities. We imposed a rotation when participants reached to visual targets, and found that not only seeing, but also hearing the location of targets via a sensory-substitution device resulted in biased movements.