Seeing the sound after visual loss: functional MRI in acquired auditory-visual synesthesia

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• 作者：Zixin Yong ; Po-Jang Hsieh ; Dan Milea
• 关键词：Synesthesia ; Auditory ; visual ; Ischemic optic neuropathy ; Functional MRI
• 刊名：Experimental Brain Research
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：February 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：235
• 期：2
• 页码：415-420
• 全文大小：
• 刊物类别：Biomedical and Life Sciences
• 刊物主题：Neurosciences; Neurology;
• 出版者：Springer Berlin Heidelberg
• ISSN：1432-1106
• 卷排序：235

文摘

Acquired auditory-visual synesthesia (AVS) is a rare neurological sign, in which specific auditory stimulation triggers visual experience. In this study, we used event-related fMRI to explore the brain regions correlated with acquired monocular sound-induced phosphenes, which occurred 2 months after unilateral visual loss due to an ischemic optic neuropathy. During the fMRI session, 1-s pure tones at various pitches were presented to the patient, who was asked to report occurrence of sound-induced phosphenes by pressing one of the two buttons (yes/no). The brain activation during phosphene-experienced trials was contrasted with non-phosphene trials and compared to results obtained in one healthy control subject who underwent the same fMRI protocol. Our results suggest, for the first time, that acquired AVS occurring after visual impairment is associated with bilateral activation of primary and secondary visual cortex, possibly due to cross-wiring between auditory and visual sensory modalities.