Review Article

Plasticity of the Dorsal “Spatial” Stream in Visually Deprived Individuals

Table 1

Summarizing table of brain coordinates (in MNI space) reported in PET and fMRI studies that investigated nonvisual spatial/motion processing in early blind individuals.

StudyTaskCoordinates in MNI space

Striem-Amit et al., [9]Location and form identification using a visual-to-auditory sensory substitution device (vOICE).[Location > Form] × [Blind > Sighted]—whole brain
 No activated clusters.
[Location > Form] in Blind—whole brain
 No activated clusters in occipital and occipitotemporal cortices.

Bedny et al., [37]Direction of motion judgment performed on receding and approaching moving sounds.[High > Low motion] × [Blind > Sighted]—whole brain
 L inferior temporal gyrus [−44, −72, −6]
 L middle occipital gyrus [−38, −68, 2]

Bonino et al., [41]One-back spatial discrimination task performed on 2- and 3-dimensional tactile matrices.[2D > 3D] in Blind—whole brain (only occipital/occipitotemporal activations are reported)
 L cuneus [−19, −97, −3]
 L middle occipital gyrus [−51, −75, 25]
 L middle occipital gyrus [−35, −90, 11]
 R middle occipital gyrus [ 3 8 , 8 5 , 1 ]
 R middle occipital gyrus [31, −87, 27]
 L lateral occipital [−40, −60, −20]

Collignon et al., [38]Spatial discrimination versus pitch discrimination of pairs of sounds.[Spatial > Pitch] × [Blind > Sighted]—whole brain
 R cuneus hV3/V3A [12, −80, 22]
 R middle occipital gyrus hMT+/V5 [48, −76, 6]
 R middle occipitotemporal gyrus hMT+/V5 [40, −56, 12]
 R Lingual gyrus [24, −48, −8]

Gougoux et al., [45]Binaural and monaural sound localization.[Monaural localization > Control ] × [Blind with superior performance > Sighted]—whole brain
 R cuneus [13, −81, 15]
 R lingual gyrus [15, −73, −6]
 L cuneus [−13, −79, 9]

Matteau et al., [43]Motion detection task performed on moving versus static tactile stimuli delivered to the tong using a sensory substitution device, the tong display unit (TDU).[Motion > Static] in blind—whole brain analyses (only occipital/occipitotemporal activations are reported)
 R middle occipital gyrus [20, −88, 22]
 R middle temporal gyrus hMT+/V5 [42, −54, −4]
 L middle temporal gyrus hMT+/V5 [−44, −64, 2]

Poirier et al., [39]Motion detection task performed on horizontally moving sounds versus static sounds presented at different locations.[Motion > Static] × [Blind > Sighted]—ROIs analyses
 R cuneus V3/V3A [24, −88, 10]
 L cuneus V3/V3A [−14, −84, 38]
 R V1/V2 [2, −82, −8]
 L V1/V2 [−24, −88, −8]
[Motion > Static] in blind (= Sighted)—ROIs analyses
 R Inferior temporal gyrus hMT+/V5 [44, −72, −2]

Renier et al., [46]One-back spatial versus frequency discrimination task performed on auditory and tactile stimuli.
[Spatial > Frequency] in Blind—whole brain—(only occipital activations are reported)
R middle occipital gyrus [51, −66, −10]

Ricciardi et al., [42]Passive tactile perception of moving versus static Braille-like dot patterns.[Motion > Static tactile] in Blind—whole brain— (only occipital/occipitotemporal activations are reported)
 R hMT+/V5 [38, −69, 7]
 L hMT+/V5 [−45, −82, 5]
 R LOC/LOtv [37, −55, −10]
 L LOC/LOtv [−51, −65, −9]
 V1/V2 [0, −92, −2]
 R V1/V2 [37, −88, −4]
 R cuneus V3A [8, −98, 20]

Weeks et al., [47]Auditory spatial localization task.[Localization > Rest] × [Blind > Sighted]—whole brain
 R superior occipital gyrus [22, −79, 22]
 R inferior occipital gyrus [40, −70, −9]

Wolbers et al., [40]Deviant target detection task within blocks of horizontally moving versus static sounds.[Moving > Static sounds] in Blind—whole brain (only individual data in occipitotemporal cortices are reported)
Blind 1
  [−39, −61, 7]; [−54, −64, −2]; [39, −55, 10]; [42, −64, 10]
Blind 2
  [−39, −67, 4]; [−42, −70, 16]; [45, −64, 10]
Blind 3
  [−33, −76, 19]; [−48, −76, 13]; [39, −55, 10]; [45, −73, 16]
Blind 4
  [−48, −73, 13]; [−42, −61, 13]; [42, −64, 1]