Functional and volumetric cortico-cerebellar alterations in congenital blind children associated with language processing

Abstract

IntroductionVisual deprivation affects learning and cognition, and maybe associated with structural and functional changes in the cerebral and cerebellar areas. We explored the role of the cerebellum in sensory-motor integration with the visual cortex and their correlation with education duration and age of onset. MethodologyT1W MRI and two functional tasks (Braille reading and auditory semantics (synonyms and antonyms)) were acquired using a 3T MR scanner in twenty congenital blind (CB) subjects and twenty sighted controls (SC), and analysis was done with the SUIT and CONN tools respectively. ResultsVolumetric changes were observed in the vermis, crus I, II, cerebellum 45,6,3,7b,8b, and posterior cerebral areas of CB compared to SC. ROI analysis for auditory tasks revealed increased functional connectivity (FC) between the posterior cerebellar network, salience network, and language network, and reduced FC between the posterior cerebellar network and default mode network. For both the functional tasks, FC was increased between language regions and bilateral Cerebellum regions (crus I, crus II, cerebellum 45). DiscussionIncreased BOLD activity in cerebellum, visual cortex, and language areas; intact connectivity between the visual and language networks; a positive correlation between the duration of education and functional cluster coefficient and changes in volume suggest integrated semantic language processing by the cerebellum, visual cortex, and language networks indicating functional and structural plasticity of cerebellum. ConclusionThe cerebellum exhibits neural plasticity for processing auditory perception and Braille reading and supports the visual cortex after visual deprivation. Education enhances sensory-motor coordination in congenital blind participants.