Neural correlates of visual-to-auditory sensory substitution in proficient blind users.

Amir Amedi, Harvard Center for Non-Invasive Magnetic Brain Stimulation,

Abstract
Sensory substitution devices (SSD) can play a role in rehabilitation of the blind with restoration of visual functions by: (1) assisting in daily-life activities such as recognizing visual objects (2) ‘guiding’ visual cortex to interpret information arriving from visual prostheses. We report here behavioral and neuroimaging results in blind expert users of ‘The vOICe’ visual-to-auditory SSD, which transforms live camera views into “soundscapes” by encoding key image aspects. Object recognition versus location processing of visual shapes encoded by ‘The vOICe’ was compared to tactile object identification. A right-hemisphere lateralized network appears to participate in processing soundscapes. Interestingly, differential activation of ventral V1/V2 is associated with shape versus location tasks. These results suggest that similar to visual processing, soundscapes activate the ventral visual stream to process shape information, while posterior parietal cortex contributes to location processing. We will discuss these results within the context of visual rehabilitation and restoration efforts.

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