Morphometric Changes of the Corpus Callosum in Congenital Blindness

We examined the effects of visual deprivation at birth on the development of the corpus callosum in a large group of congenitally blind individuals. We acquired high-resolution T1-weighted MRI scans in 28 congenitally blind and 28 normal sighted subjects matched for age and gender. There was no overall group effect of visual deprivation on the total surface area of the corpus callosum. However, subdividing the corpus callosum into five subdivisions revealed significant regional changes in its three most posterior parts. Compared to the sighted controls, congenitally blind individuals showed a 12% reduction in the splenium, and a 20% increase in the isthmus and the posterior part of the body. A shape analysis further revealed that the bending angle of the corpus callosum was more convex in congenitally blind compared to the sighted control subjects. The observed morphometric changes in the corpus callosum are in line with the well-described cross-modal functional and structural neuroplastic changes in congenital blindness.

[1]  Chunshui Yu,et al.  Thick Visual Cortex in the Early Blind , 2009, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[2]  D. Louis Collins,et al.  Automatic 3‐D model‐based neuroanatomical segmentation , 1995 .

[3]  P. Pietrini,et al.  Mind the blind brain to understand the sighted one! Is there a supramodal cortical functional architecture? , 2014, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.

[4]  Jens Frahm,et al.  Topography of the human corpus callosum revisited—Comprehensive fiber tractography using diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging , 2006, NeuroImage.

[5]  G. E. Alexander,et al.  In vivo imaging of region and cell type specific neocortical neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease , 2002, Journal of Neural Transmission.

[6]  P. Nopoulos,et al.  Corpus Callosum Shape Is Altered in Individuals With Nonsyndromic Cleft Lip and Palate , 2013, American journal of medical genetics. Part A.

[7]  B. Payne,et al.  Alterations in connections of the corpus callosum following convergent and divergent strabismus , 1983, Brain Research.

[8]  D. Reutens,et al.  Size and Shape of the Corpus Callosum in Adult Niemann-Pick Type C Reflects State and Trait Illness Variables , 2011, American Journal of Neuroradiology.

[9]  M. Ptito,et al.  Alterations of the visual pathways in congenital blindness , 2008, Experimental Brain Research.

[10]  A. Toga,et al.  Mapping morphology of the corpus callosum in schizophrenia. , 2000, Cerebral cortex.

[11]  C. Milleret.  Visual callosal connections and strabismus , 1994, Behavioural Brain Research.

[12]  Albert Gjedde,et al.  Transcranial magnetic stimulation of the visual cortex induces somatotopically organized qualia in blind subjects , 2006, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[13]  M. Ptito,et al.  Compensatory plasticity and cross-modal reorganization following early visual deprivation , 2014, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.

[14]  Gabriele Polonara,et al.  Functional Topography of Human Corpus Callosum: An fMRI Mapping Study , 2013, Neural plasticity.

[15]  A. Cowey,et al.  Imaging studies in congenital anophthalmia reveal preservation of brain architecture in 'visual' cortex. , 2009, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[16]  Alan C. Evans,et al.  A nonparametric method for automatic correction of intensity nonuniformity in MRI data , 1998, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[17]  George A. Saridis,et al.  MEG reveals a fast pathway from somatosensory cortex to occipital areas via posterior parietal cortex in a blind subject , 2013, Front. Hum. Neurosci..

[18]  Chunshui Yu,et al.  Whole brain functional connectivity in the early blind. , 2007, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[19]  Michael S. Gazzaniga,et al.  Cortical Projection Topography of the Human Splenium: Hemispheric Asymmetry and Individual Differences , 2010, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[20]  Walter Schneider,et al.  In vivo quantification of global connectivity in the human corpus callosum , 2012, NeuroImage.

[21]  D. Collins,et al.  Gross Anatomy of the Corpus Callosum in Alzheimer’s Disease: Regions of Degeneration and Their Neuropsychological Correlates , 2006, Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders.

[22]  Tianzi Jiang,et al.  Age of onset of blindness affects brain anatomical networks constructed using diffusion tensor tractography. , 2013, Cerebral cortex.

[23]  M. Peters,et al.  The Parallel Brain: The Cognitive Neuroscience of the Corpus Callosum , 2004 .

[24]  Dae-Shik Kim,et al.  Spatial resolution dependence of DTI tractography in human occipito-callosal region , 2006, NeuroImage.

[25]  Jun Li,et al.  Plasticity of the corticospinal tract in early blindness revealed by quantitative analysis of fractional anisotropy based on diffusion tensor tractography , 2007, NeuroImage.

[26]  A. Volder,et al.  Brain energy metabolism in early blind subjects: neural activity in the visual cortex , 1997, Brain Research.

[27]  M. Ptito,et al.  Insights from darkness: what the study of blindness has taught us about brain structure and function. , 2011, Progress in brain research.

[28]  Andrew S. Bock,et al.  Visual callosal topography in the absence of retinal input , 2013, NeuroImage.

[29]  Paul M. Thompson,et al.  Brain structure changes visualized in early- and late-onset blind subjects , 2010, NeuroImage.

[30]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  Early visual deprivation induces structural plasticity in gray and white matter , 2005, Current Biology.

[31]  D. Frost,et al.  Effects of dark rearing on the development of visual callosal connections , 2004, Experimental Brain Research.

[32]  P. Pietrini,et al.  New light from the dark: what blindness can teach us about brain function. , 2011, Current opinion in neurology.

[33]  Jong Doo Lee,et al.  Morphological alterations in the congenital blind based on the analysis of cortical thickness and surface area , 2009, NeuroImage.

[34]  G M Innocenti,et al.  Maturation of visual callosal connections in visually deprived kittens: a challenging critical period , 1985, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[35]  U Bellugi,et al.  Analysis of cerebral shape in Williams syndrome. , 2001, Archives of neurology.

[36]  D. Louis Collins,et al.  BEaST: Brain extraction based on nonlocal segmentation technique , 2012, NeuroImage.

[37]  G. Wittenberg,et al.  Functional connectivity between somatosensory and visual cortex in early blind humans , 2004, The European journal of neuroscience.

[38]  D. Collins,et al.  Automatic 3D Intersubject Registration of MR Volumetric Data in Standardized Talairach Space , 1994, Journal of computer assisted tomography.

[39]  Alain Ptito,et al.  Alterations in right posterior hippocampus in early blind individuals , 2007, Neuroreport.

[40]  Tianzi Jiang,et al.  Altered resting‐state network connectivity in congenital blind , 2014, Human brain mapping.

[41]  Paul M. Thompson,et al.  Pattern of hippocampal shape and volume differences in blind subjects , 2009, NeuroImage.

[42]  Robert J. Zatorre,et al.  Sexual Dimorphism in the Corpus Callosum: Methodological Considerations in MRI Morphometry , 2001, NeuroImage.

[43]  M. Ptito,et al.  Cross-modal plasticity revealed by electrotactile stimulation of the tongue in the congenitally blind. , 2005, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[44]  Chunshui Yu,et al.  Altered functional connectivity of primary visual cortex in early blindness , 2008, Human brain mapping.

[45]  S. F. Witelson.  Hand and sex differences in the isthmus and genu of the human corpus callosum. A postmortem morphological study. , 1989, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[46]  M. Greenlee,et al.  Diffusion tensor imaging shows white matter tracts between human auditory and visual cortex , 2011, Experimental Brain Research.

[47]  M. Ptito,et al.  Cortical GABAergic Interneurons in Cross-Modal Plasticity following Early Blindness , 2012, Neural plasticity.

[48]  B. Wandell,et al.  Functional organization of human occipital-callosal fiber tracts. , 2005, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[49]  Emiliano Ricciardi,et al.  The Nature of Consciousness in the Visually Deprived Brain , 2011, Front. Psychology.

[50]  A. Scheibel,et al.  Fiber composition of the human corpus callosum , 1992, Brain Research.

[51]  A. Traboulsee,et al.  Longitudinal, Regional and Deformation-Specific Corpus Callosum Shape Analysis for Multiple Sclerosis , 2007, 2007 29th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

[52]  Dennis Velakoulis,et al.  Morphology of the corpus callosum at different stages of schizophrenia: cross-sectional study in first-episode and chronic illness. , 2008, The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science.

[53]  Dong Ik Kim,et al.  Corpus callosal connection mapping using cortical gray matter parcellation and DT‐MRI , 2008, Human brain mapping.

[54]  D. Mitchell,et al.  The effects of dark-rearing on visual callosal connections of cats , 1979, Brain Research.

[55]  Fuchun Lin,et al.  Progressive atrophy in the optic pathway and visual cortex of early blind Chinese adults: A voxel-based morphometry magnetic resonance imaging study , 2007, NeuroImage.

[56]  A. Snyder,et al.  Diffusion tensor imaging reveals white matter reorganization in early blind humans. , 2006, Cerebral cortex.

[57]  D. Louis Collins,et al.  Unbiased average age-appropriate atlases for pediatric studies , 2011, NeuroImage.

[58]  C Caltagirone,et al.  Morphology and morphometry of the corpus callosum in Williams syndrome: A T1-weighted MRI study , 2002, Neuroreport.

[59]  M. Petrides,et al.  Interhemispheric coupling improves the brain's ability to perform low cognitive demand tasks in Alzheimer's disease and high cognitive demand tasks in normal aging. , 2013, Neuropsychology.