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Ferrari C, Arioli M, Atias D, Merabet LB, Cattaneo Z. Perception and discrimination of real-life emotional vocalizations in early blind individuals. Front Psychol 2024; 15:1386676. [PMID: 38784630 PMCID: PMC11112099 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1386676] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2024] [Accepted: 04/16/2024] [Indexed: 05/25/2024] Open
Abstract
Introduction The capacity to understand others' emotions and react accordingly is a key social ability. However, it may be compromised in case of a profound sensory loss that limits the contribution of available contextual cues (e.g., facial expression, gestures, body posture) to interpret emotions expressed by others. In this study, we specifically investigated whether early blindness affects the capacity to interpret emotional vocalizations, whose valence may be difficult to recognize without a meaningful context. Methods We asked a group of early blind (N = 22) and sighted controls (N = 22) to evaluate the valence and the intensity of spontaneous fearful and joyful non-verbal vocalizations. Results Our data showed that emotional vocalizations presented alone (i.e., with no contextual information) are similarly ambiguous for blind and sighted individuals but are perceived as more intense by the former possibly reflecting their higher saliency when visual experience is unavailable. Disussion Our study contributes to a better understanding of how sensory experience shapes ememotion recognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chiara Ferrari
- Department of Humanities, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
- IRCCS Mondino Foundation, Pavia, Italy
| | - Maria Arioli
- Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy
| | - Doron Atias
- Department of Psychology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Lotfi B. Merabet
- The Laboratory for Visual Neuroplasticity, Department of Ophthalmology, Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Zaira Cattaneo
- Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy
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Hauptman M, Elli G, Pant R, Bedny M. Neural specialization for 'visual' concepts emerges in the absence of vision. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2023.08.23.552701. [PMID: 37662234 PMCID: PMC10473738 DOI: 10.1101/2023.08.23.552701] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/05/2023]
Abstract
Vision provides a key source of information about many concepts, including 'living things' (e.g., tiger) and visual events (e.g., sparkle). According to a prominent theoretical framework, neural specialization for different conceptual categories is shaped by sensory features, e.g., living things are neurally dissociable from navigable places because living things concepts depend more on visual features. We tested this framework by comparing the neural basis of 'visual' concepts across sighted (n=22) and congenitally blind (n=21) adults. Participants judged the similarity of words varying in their reliance on vision while undergoing fMRI. We compared neural responses to living things nouns (birds, mammals) and place nouns (natural, manmade). In addition, we compared visual event verbs (e.g., 'sparkle') to non-visual events (sound emission, hand motion, mouth motion). People born blind exhibited distinctive univariate and multivariate responses to living things in a temporo-parietal semantic network activated by nouns, including the precuneus (PC). To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration that neural selectivity for living things does not require vision. We additionally observed preserved neural signatures of 'visual' light events in the left middle temporal gyrus (LMTG+). Across a wide range of semantic types, neural representations of sensory concepts develop independent of sensory experience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miriam Hauptman
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Giulia Elli
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Rashi Pant
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Department of Biological Psychology & Neuropsychology, Universität Hamburg, Germany
| | - Marina Bedny
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
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Campbell E, Casillas R, Bergelson E. The role of vision in the acquisition of words: Vocabulary development in blind toddlers. Dev Sci 2024:e13475. [PMID: 38229227 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13475] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2023] [Revised: 12/07/2023] [Accepted: 12/26/2023] [Indexed: 01/18/2024]
Abstract
What is vision's role in driving early word production? To answer this, we assessed parent-report vocabulary questionnaires administered to congenitally blind children (N = 40, Mean age = 24 months [R: 7-57 months]) and compared the size and contents of their productive vocabulary to those of a large normative sample of sighted children (N = 6574). We found that on average, blind children showed a roughly half-year vocabulary delay relative to sighted children, amid considerable variability. However, the content of blind and sighted children's vocabulary was statistically indistinguishable in word length, part of speech, semantic category, concreteness, interactiveness, and perceptual modality. At a finer-grained level, we also found that words' perceptual properties intersect with children's perceptual abilities. Our findings suggest that while an absence of visual input may initially make vocabulary development more difficult, the content of the early productive vocabulary is largely resilient to differences in perceptual access. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Infants and toddlers born blind (with no other diagnoses) show a 7.5 month productive vocabulary delay on average, with wide variability. Across the studied age range (7-57 months), vocabulary delays widened with age. Blind and sighted children's early vocabularies contain similar distributions of word lengths, parts of speech, semantic categories, and perceptual modalities. Blind children (but not sighted children) were more likely to say visual words which could also be experienced through other senses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erin Campbell
- Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA
- Wheelock College of Education & Human Development, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | | | - Elika Bergelson
- Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA
- Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
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Liu YF, Rapp B, Bedny M. Reading Braille by Touch Recruits Posterior Parietal Cortex. J Cogn Neurosci 2023; 35:1593-1616. [PMID: 37584592 PMCID: PMC10877400 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_02041] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/17/2023]
Abstract
Blind readers use a tactile reading system consisting of raised dot arrays: braille/⠃⠗⠇. How do human brains implement reading by touch? The current study looked for signatures of reading-specific orthographic processes in braille, separate from low-level somatosensory responses and semantic processes. Of specific interest were responses in posterior parietal cortices (PPCs), because of their role in high-level tactile perception. Congenitally blind, proficient braille readers read real words and pseudowords by touch while undergoing fMRI. We leveraged the system of contractions in English braille, where one braille cell can represent multiple English print letters (e.g., "ing" ⠬, "one" ⠐⠕), making it possible to separate physical and orthographic word length. All words in the study consisted of four braille cells, but their corresponding Roman letter spellings varied from four to seven letters (e.g., "con-c-er-t" ⠒⠉⠻⠞. contracted: four cells; uncontracted: seven letters). We found that the bilateral supramarginal gyrus in the PPC increased its activity as the uncontracted word length increased. By contrast, in the hand region of primary somatosensory cortex (S1), activity increased as a function of a low-level somatosensory feature: dot-number per word. The PPC also showed greater response to pseudowords than real words and distinguished between real and pseudowords in multivariate-pattern analysis. Parieto-occipital, early visual and ventral occipito-temporal, as well as prefrontal cortices also showed sensitivity to the real-versus-pseudoword distinction. We conclude that PPC is involved in orthographic processing for braille, that is, braille character and word recognition, possibly because of braille's tactile modality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yun-Fei Liu
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University
| | - Brenda Rapp
- Department of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins University
| | - Marina Bedny
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University
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Richardson H, Saxe R, Bedny M. Neural correlates of theory of mind reasoning in congenitally blind children. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2023; 63:101285. [PMID: 37591011 PMCID: PMC10450415 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2023.101285] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2022] [Revised: 01/19/2023] [Accepted: 07/21/2023] [Indexed: 08/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Vision is an important source of information about other minds for sighted children, especially prior to the onset of language. Visually observed actions, eye gaze, and facial expressions of others provide information about mental states, such as beliefs, desires, and emotions. Does such experience contribute causally to the development of cortical networks supporting social cognition? To address this question we compared functional development of brain regions supporting theory of mind (ToM), as well as behavioral ToM reasoning, across congenitally blind (n=17) and sighted (n=114) children and adolescents (4-17 years old). We find that blind children in this age range show slightly lower ToM behavioral performance relative to sighted children. Likewise, the functional profile of ToM brain regions is qualitatively similar, but quantitatively weaker in blind relative to sighted children. Alongside prior research, these data suggest that vision facilitates, but is not necessary for, ToM development.
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Affiliation(s)
- H Richardson
- School of Philosophy, Psychology, and Language Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
| | - R Saxe
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - M Bedny
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
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Sabourin CJ, Merrikhi Y, Lomber SG. Do blind people hear better? Trends Cogn Sci 2022; 26:999-1012. [PMID: 36207258 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2022.08.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2022] [Revised: 08/22/2022] [Accepted: 08/25/2022] [Indexed: 01/12/2023]
Abstract
For centuries, anecdotal evidence such as the perfect pitch of the blind piano tuner or blind musician has supported the notion that individuals who have lost their sight early in life have superior hearing abilities compared with sighted people. Recently, auditory psychophysical and functional imaging studies have identified that specific auditory enhancements in the early blind can be linked to activation in extrastriate visual cortex, suggesting crossmodal plasticity. Furthermore, the nature of the sensory reorganization in occipital cortex supports the concept of a task-based functional cartography for the cerebral cortex rather than a sensory-based organization. In total, studies of early-blind individuals provide valuable insights into mechanisms of cortical plasticity and principles of cerebral organization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carina J Sabourin
- Department of Physiology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3G 1Y6, Canada; Biological and Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3G 1Y6, Canada
| | - Yaser Merrikhi
- Department of Physiology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3G 1Y6, Canada
| | - Stephen G Lomber
- Department of Physiology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3G 1Y6, Canada; Biological and Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3G 1Y6, Canada; Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3G 1Y6, Canada; Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3G 1Y6, Canada.
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Cheng Q, Silvano E, Bedny M. Sensitive periods in cortical specialization for language: insights from studies with Deaf and blind individuals. Curr Opin Behav Sci 2020; 36:169-176. [PMID: 33718533 PMCID: PMC7945734 DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.10.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
Studies with Deaf and blind individuals demonstrate that linguistic and sensory experiences during sensitive periods have potent effects on neurocognitive basis of language. Native users of sign and spoken languages recruit similar fronto-temporal systems during language processing. By contrast, delays in sign language access impact proficiency and the neural basis of language. Analogously, early but not late-onset blindness modifies the neural basis of language. People born blind recruit 'visual' areas during language processing, show reduced left-lateralization of language and enhanced performance on some language tasks. Sensitive period plasticity in and outside fronto-temporal language systems shapes the neural basis of language.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qi Cheng
- University of California San Diego
- University of Washington
| | - Emily Silvano
- Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
- Johns Hopkins University
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