Brief Postnatal Visual Deprivation Triggers Long-Lasting Interactive Structural and Functional Reorganization of the Human Cortex.

Yixuan Feng,Xiaoqing Gao,Daphne Maurer,Ke Yao,Olivier Collignon

doi:10.3389/fmed.2021.752021

Abstract

Patients treated for bilateral congenital cataracts provide a unique model to test the role of early visual input in shaping the development of the human cortex. Previous studies showed that brief early visual deprivation triggers long-lasting changes in the human visual cortex. However, it remains unknown if such changes interact with the development of other parts of the cortex. With high-resolution structural and resting-state fMRI images, we found changes in cortical thickness within, but not limited to, the visual cortex in adult patients, who experienced transient visual deprivation early in life as a result of congenital cataracts. Importantly, the covariation of cortical thickness across regions was also altered in the patients. The areas with altered cortical thickness in patients also showed differences in functional connectivity between patients and normally sighted controls. Together, the current findings suggest an impact of early visual deprivation on the interactive development of the human cortex.

Highlights

The human cortex takes many years to develop an adult-like structure, with major postnatal changes in volume, surface area, cortical thickness, myelination, and connectivity [1]
We evaluated the role of early visual input in shaping the structure of the occipital cortex and its connectivity with other cortical areas in a larger sample (n = 11) of adults treated for bilateral congenital cataracts, all of whose visual deprivation was restricted to a relatively short period (
Adults treated for bilateral congenital cataracts provide a unique opportunity to study the effect of a short and transient period of early visual deprivation on the development of the visual cortex

Summary

Introduction

The human cortex takes many years to develop an adult-like structure, with major postnatal changes in volume, surface area, cortical thickness, myelination, and connectivity [1]. By age three-four, a monotonic decrease in cortical thickness that continues until at least age 30 is observed [1, 8,9,10,11,12,13]. These patterns are seen throughout the brain, including the occipital lobe, which undergoes small increases in thickness during the first year [6, 7], and later monotonic reductions. The developmental thinning has been attributed to experience-dependent pruning [14]. contributions from changes in cell size, cortical stretching, and/or sulci width or depth cannot be ruled out [8, 9]

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Results

Conclusion