Altered morphological traits along central olfactory centres in congenitally blind subjects

It is well documented that early sensory loss typically alters brain morphology in the areas associated with the lost sense. However, much less is known about the impact of early sensory loss on the remainder of the sensory regions. Therefore, we investigated whether congenitally blind (CB) individu...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inThe European journal of neuroscience Vol. 56; no. 4; pp. 4486 - 4500
Main Authors Chouinard‐Leclaire, Christine, Manescu, Simona, Collignon, Olivier, Lepore, Franco, Frasnelli, Johannes
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Chichester Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.08.2022
Subjects
Blindness
congenital blindness
Information processing
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
Morphology
neuroplasticity
Olfactory bulb
olfactory perception
Olfactory system
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:It is well documented that early sensory loss typically alters brain morphology in the areas associated with the lost sense. However, much less is known about the impact of early sensory loss on the remainder of the sensory regions. Therefore, we investigated whether congenitally blind (CB) individuals show brain alterations in the olfactory system by comparing cortical morphology and olfactory bulb (OB) volume between 16 congenitally blind individuals and 16 sighted matched controls. Our results showed that not only CB blind individuals exhibited smaller OB but also alterations of cortical density in some higher olfactory processing centres, but unchanged cortical thickness. Our current findings suggest that a lifelong absence of visual input leads to morphological alterations in olfactory processing areas. We investigated whether congenitally blind (CB) individuals show brain alterations in the olfactory system by comparing cortical morphology and olfactory bulb (OB) volume between 16 congenitally blind individuals and 16 sighted matched controls. Our results showed that not only CB blind individuals exhibited smaller OB but also alterations of cortical density in some higher olfactory processing centres, but unchanged cortical thickness. Our current findings suggest that a lifelong absence of visual input leads to morphological alterations in olfactory processing areas.
Bibliography:Funding information
This work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) (NSERC 2014‐05053) to FL, the research centre of Sacré‐Coeur Hospital in Montreal (CIUSSS du Nord‐de‐l'Île‐de‐Montréal), the Université du Québec à Trois‐Rivières, NSERC (NSERC 2015‐04597) and the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé (FRQS) to JF, funding from NSERC and the Fonds de recherché du Québec – Nature et Technologies (FRQNT) to SM, funding from NSERC to CCL and the national fund for scientific research of Belgium (FRS‐FNRS) to OC.
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Grant/Award Numbers: NSERC 2014‐05053, NSERC 2015‐04597
Edited by: John Foxe
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
content type line 23
ISSN:0953-816X
1460-9568
1460-9568
DOI:10.1111/ejn.15758