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2015 ; 5
(ä): 10515
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Eye closure enhances dark night perceptions
#MMPMID26012706
Brodoehl S
; Klingner CM
; Witte OW
Sci Rep
2015[May]; 5
(ä): 10515
PMID26012706
show ga
We often close our eyes when we explore objects with our fingers to reduce the
dominance of the visual system over our other senses. Here we show that eye
closure, even in complete darkness, results in improved somatosensory perception
due to a switch from visual predominance towards a somatosensory processing mode.
Using a tactile discrimination task and functional neuroimaging (fMRI) data were
acquired from healthy subjects with their eyes opened and closed in two
environments: under ambient light and in complete darkness. Under both conditions
the perception threshold decreased when subjects closed their eyes, and their
fingers became more sensitive. In complete darkness, eye closure significantly
increased occipital blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) activity in the
somatosensory and secondary visual processing areas. This change in brain
activity was associated with enhanced coupling between the sensory thalamus and
somatosensory cortex; connectivity between the visual and somatosensory areas
decreased. The present study demonstrates that eye closure improves somatosensory
perception not merely due to the lack of visual signals; instead, the act of
closing the eyes itself alters the processing mode in the brain: with eye closure
the brain switches from thalamo-cortical networks with visual dominance to a
non-visually dominated processing mode.
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