San Francisco. After prolonged blindness, can the brain to process visual signals once again? A study was published in PLoS Biology and conducted in collaboration between the University of Pisa, Stella Maris Foundation and the CNR Institute of Neuroscience, coordinated by Maria Concetta Morrone, and the Ophthalmology team of the Careggi University Hospital of the University of Florence, led by Stanislao Rizzo. They investigated a group of blind patients suffering from retinitis pigmentosa who have been implanted with a retinal prosthesis. “The scientific literature has demonstrated that after years of blindness, the human brain ‘reorganizes’ itself and the cortical areas that were once dedicated to processing visual signals inactivate due to blindness, perform new functions such as processing tactile or auditory information” explains Elisa Castaldi, first author of the study. “The data from this group of patients demonstrate that this process is partly reversible and that it can be done so that the areas that were once visual perform their original function once again, although new visual signal is very different and very distorted compared to the original. ” (9Colonne)
