TY - JOUR

T1 - Brain structural changes in blindness

T2 - a systematic review and an anatomical likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis

AU - Paré, Samuel

AU - Bleau, Maxime

AU - Dricot, Laurence

AU - Ptito, Maurice

AU - Kupers, Ron

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - In recent decades, numerous structural brain imaging studies investigated purported morphometric changes in early (EB) and late onset blindness (LB). The results of these studies have not yielded very consistent results, neither with respect to the type, nor to the anatomical locations of the brain morphometric alterations. To better characterize the effects of blindness on brain morphometry, we performed a systematic review and an Anatomical-Likelihood-Estimation (ALE) coordinate-based-meta-analysis of 65 eligible studies on brain structural changes in EB and LB, including 890 EB, 466 LB and 1257 sighted controls. Results revealed atrophic changes throughout the whole extent of the retino-geniculo-striate system in both EB and LB, whereas changes in areas beyond the occipital lobe occurred in EB only. We discuss the nature of some of the contradictory findings with respect to the used brain imaging methodologies and characteristics of the blind populations such as the onset, duration and cause of blindness. Future studies should aim for much larger sample sizes, eventually by merging data from different brain imaging centers using the same imaging sequences, opt for multimodal structural brain imaging, and go beyond a purely structural approach by combining functional with structural connectivity network analyses.

AB - In recent decades, numerous structural brain imaging studies investigated purported morphometric changes in early (EB) and late onset blindness (LB). The results of these studies have not yielded very consistent results, neither with respect to the type, nor to the anatomical locations of the brain morphometric alterations. To better characterize the effects of blindness on brain morphometry, we performed a systematic review and an Anatomical-Likelihood-Estimation (ALE) coordinate-based-meta-analysis of 65 eligible studies on brain structural changes in EB and LB, including 890 EB, 466 LB and 1257 sighted controls. Results revealed atrophic changes throughout the whole extent of the retino-geniculo-striate system in both EB and LB, whereas changes in areas beyond the occipital lobe occurred in EB only. We discuss the nature of some of the contradictory findings with respect to the used brain imaging methodologies and characteristics of the blind populations such as the onset, duration and cause of blindness. Future studies should aim for much larger sample sizes, eventually by merging data from different brain imaging centers using the same imaging sequences, opt for multimodal structural brain imaging, and go beyond a purely structural approach by combining functional with structural connectivity network analyses.

KW - Brain morphometry

KW - Cross-modal plasticity

KW - Early and late onset blindness

KW - Grey matter, white matter

KW - MRI, DTI

KW - Visual system

U2 - 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105165

DO - 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105165

M3 - Review

C2 - 37054803

AN - SCOPUS:85157971044

VL - 150

JO - Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

JF - Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

SN - 0149-7634

M1 - 105165

ER -