Philippe wanet biography for kids

Abstract

Over the last decade, functional brain imaging has provided insight to the maturation processes and has helped elucidate the pathophysiological mechanisms involved in brain plasticity in the absence of vision. In case of congenital blindness, drastic changes occur within the deafferented “visual” cortex that starts receiving and processing non visual inputs, including olfactory stimuli. This functional reorganization of the occipital cortex gives rise to compensatory perceptual and cognitive mechanisms that help blind persons achieve perceptual tasks, leading to superior olfactory abilities in these subjects. This view receives support from psychophysical testing, volumetric measurements and functional brain imaging studies in humans, which are presented here.

Keywords: olfactory perception, congenital blindness, functional neuroimaging, cross-modal plasticity, visual deprivation, olfaction

Introduction

The plasticity of the human brain, that is, its ability to adapt to environmental constraints by creating changes in its connectivity (synaptic plasticity) and/or in the neurons themselves (e.g., neurogenesis), is one of its most outstanding properties (Rakic, 2002). This plasticity is most striking in the sensory systems, which provide all inputs to the brain (P

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