And a thoughtful piece on how neurovariability in congenital blindness may arise, coupled with interesting ideas on how to address the issue in the future.
https://www.jneurosci.org/content/42/47/8755#connectomics #neurovariability@neuro @neuroscience @cognition @cogsci @fmriGeneralization and Idiosyncrasy: Two Sides of the Same Brain
Over the past 40 years, the central goal of cognitive neuroscience has been to interpret neural signals. To do so, it focuses on depicting commonalities between individuals at the population level ([Raizada and Connolly, 2012][1]). However, everyone's perception of the world is shaped differently by
The Role of Visual Experience in Individual Differences of Brain Connectivity
Visual cortex organization is highly consistent across individuals. But to what degree does this consistency depend on life experience, in particular sensory experience? In this study, we asked whether visual cortex reorganization in congenital blindness results in connectivity patterns that are particularly variable across individuals, focusing on resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) patterns from the primary visual cortex. We show that the absence of shared visual experience results in more variable RSFC patterns across blind individuals than sighted controls. Increased variability is specifically found in areas that show a group difference between the blind and sighted in their RSFC. These findings reveal a relationship between brain plasticity and individual variability; reorganization manifests variably across individuals. We further investigated the different patterns of reorganization in the blind, showing that the connectivity to frontal regions, proposed to have a role in the reorganization of the visual cortex of the blind toward higher cognitive roles, is highly variable. Further, we link some of the variability in visual-to-frontal connectivity to another environmental factor—duration of formal education. Together, these findings show a role of postnatal sensory and socioeconomic experience in imposing consistency on brain organization. By revealing the idiosyncratic nature of neural reorganization, these findings highlight the importance of considering individual differences in fitting sensory aids and restoration approaches for vision loss.
SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The typical visual system is highly consistent across individuals. What are the origins of this consistency? Comparing the consistency of visual cortex connectivity between people born blind and sighted people, we showed that blindness results in higher variability, suggesting a key impact of postnatal individual experience on brain organization. Further, connectivity patterns that changed following blindness were particularly variable, resulting in diverse patterns of brain reorganization. Individual differences in reorganization were also directly affected by nonvisual experiences in the blind (years of formal education). Together, these findings show a role of sensory and socioeconomic experiences in creating individual differences in brain organization and endorse the use of individual profiles for rehabilitation and restoration of vision loss.
A glimpse of the future of neuroimaging: connecting brain regions (and scientists across fields) to discover the emergent properties of the brain.
https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.abq2591#connectomics #neurovariability #comparative #clinical@neuro @neuroscience @cognition @cogsci @fmri
Ambra Ferrari