biostudies-literatureUnknown9(1)Amadeo MBPrevious research has shown that peripheral, task-irrelevant sounds elicit activity in contralateral visual cortex of sighted people, as revealed by a sustained positive deflection in the event-related potential (ERP) over the occipital scalp contralateral to the sound's location. This Auditory-evoked Contralateral Occipital Positivity (ACOP) appears between 200-450 ms after sound onset, and is present even when the task is entirely auditory and no visual stimuli are presented at all. Here, we investigate whether this cross-modal activation of contralateral visual cortex is influenced by visual experience. To this end, ERPs were recorded in 12 sighted and 12 blind subjects during a unimodal auditory task. Participants listened to a stream of sounds and pressed a button every time they heard a central target tone, while ignoring the peripheral noise bursts. It was found that task-irrelevant noise bursts elicited a larger ACOP in blind compared to sighted participants, indicating for the first time that peripheral sounds can enhance neural activity in visual cortex in a spatially lateralized manner even in visually deprived individuals. Overall, these results suggest that the cross-modal activation of contralateral visual cortex triggered by peripheral sounds does not require any visual input to develop, and is rather enhanced by visual deprivation.Scientific reports11637https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC6690873biostudies-literaturePeripheral sounds elicit stronger activity in contralateral occipital cortex in blind than sighted individuals.PMC6690873Gori MStormer VSCampus CAmadeo MBfalsePeripheral sounds elicit stronger activity in contralateral occipital cortex in blind than sighted individuals.Previous research has shown that peripheral, task-irrelevant sounds elicit activity in contralateral visual cortex of sighted people, as revealed by a sustained positive deflection in the event-related potential (ERP) over the occipital scalp contralateral to the sound's location. This Auditory-evoked Contralateral Occipital Positivity (ACOP) appears between 200-450 ms after sound onset, and is present even when the task is entirely auditory and no visual stimuli are presented at all. Here, we investigate whether this cross-modal activation of contralateral visual cortex is influenced by visual experience. To this end, ERPs were recorded in 12 sighted and 12 blind subjects during a unimodal auditory task. Participants listened to a stream of sounds and pressed a button every time they heard a central target tone, while ignoring the peripheral noise bursts. It was found that task-irrelevant noise bursts elicited a larger ACOP in blind compared to sighted participants, indicating for the first time that peripheral sounds can enhance neural activity in visual cortex in a spatially lateralized manner even in visually deprived individuals. Overall, these results suggest that the cross-modal activation of contralateral visual cortex triggered by peripheral sounds does not require any visual input to develop, and is rather enhanced by visual deprivation.2019-01-01T00:00:00Z2019 Aug2025-04-04T19:02:59.355Z2019-08-20T07:04:52ZS-EPMC66908733140615810.1038/s41598-019-48079-3