Loss of action-related function and connectivity in the blind extrastriate body area.

ABSTRACT: The Extrastriate Body Area (EBA) participates in the visual perception and motor actions of body parts. We recently showed that EBA's perceptual function develops independently of visual experience, responding to stimuli with body-part information in a supramodal fashion. However, it is still unclear if the EBA similarly maintains its action-related function. Here, we used fMRI to study motor-evoked responses and connectivity patterns in the congenitally blind brain. We found that, unlike the case of perception, EBA does not develop an action-related response without visual experience. In addition, we show that congenital blindness alters EBA's connectivity profile in a counterintuitive way-functional connectivity with sensorimotor cortices dramatically decreases, whereas connectivity with

SUBMITTER: Yizhar O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10035577 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature