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2016 ; 2016
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The Cortical Network for Braille Writing in the Blind
#MMPMID28890944
Likova LT
; Tyler CW
; Cacciamani L
; Mineff K
; Nicholas S
IS&T Int Symp Electron Imaging
2016[]; 2016
(ä): ä PMID28890944
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Fundamental forms of high-order cognition, such as reading and writing, are
usually studied in the context of one modality - vision. People without sight,
however, use the kinesthetic-based Braille writing, and haptic-based Braille
reading. We asked whether the cognitive and motor control mechanisms underlying
writing and reading are modality-specific or supramodal. While a number of
previous functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) studies have investigated
the brain network for Braille reading in the blind, such studies on Braille
writing are lacking. Consequently, no comparative network analysis of Braille
writing vs. reading exists. Here, we report the first study of Braille writing,
and a comparison of the brain organization for Braille writing vs Braille
reading. FMRI was conducted in a Siemens 3T Trio scanner. Our custom
MRI-compatible drawing/writing lectern was further modified to provide for
Braille reading and writing. Each of five paragraphs of novel Braille text
describing objects, faces and navigation sequences was read, then reproduced
twice by Braille writing from memory, then read a second time. During Braille
reading, the haptic-sensing of the Braille letters strongly activated not only
the early visual area V1 and V2, but some highly specialized areas, such as the
classical visual grapheme area and the Exner motor grapheme area.
Braille-writing-from-memory, engaged a significantly more extensive network in
dorsal motor, somatosensory/kinesthetic, dorsal parietal and prefrontal cortex.
However, in contrast to the largely extended V1 activation in drawing-from-memory
in the blind after training (Likova, 2012), Braille writing from memory generated
focal activation restricted to the most foveal part of V1, presumably reflecting
topographically the focal demands of such a "pin-pricking" task.