Tactile perception recruits functionally related visual areas in the late-blind

When blind people touch Braille characters, blood £ow increases in visual areas, leading to speculation that visual circuitry assists tactile discrimination in the blind. We tested this hypothesis in a functional magnetic resonance imaging study designed to reveal activation appropriate to the nature of tactile stimulation. In late-blind individuals, hMT/V5 and fusiform face area activated during visual imagery of moving patterns or faces. When they touched a doll’s face, right fusiform face area was again activated. Equally, hMT/V5 was activated when objects moved over the skin. We saw no diierence in hMT/V5 or fusiform face area activity during motion or face perception in the congenitally blind. We conclude that specialized visual areas, once established through visual experience, assist equivalent tactile identi¢cation tasks years after the onset of blindness. NeuroReport 17:1381^1384 � c 2006 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.