PASADENA, Calif.--Studies of the brains of blind persons whose sight was partially restored later in life have produced a compelling example of the brain's ability to adapt to new circumstances and rewire and reconfigure itself.

The research, conducted by postdoctoral researcher Melissa Saenz of the California Institute of Technology along with Christof Koch, the Lois and Victor Troendle Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology and professor of computation and neural systems, and their colleagues, shows that the part of the brain that processes visual information in normal individuals can be co-opted to respond to both visual and auditory information. That brain reorganization persists even if the blind subjects later regain their vision--for example, through technologies such as corneal stem-cell transplants, retinal prosthetics, and gene therapy.

"Sight-recovery patients can face many challenges in using restored vision because of brain reorganization that occurs during prolonged blindness. Understanding this brain adaptation will be useful for helping patients make the best use of their restored vision," says Saenz.    Read More...