An important focus of blind brain research, especially the early-blind brain, is how to identify the specific neural plasticity patterns. Neuroimaging studies, particularly the diffusion MRI, are powerful probes for characterizing the microstructural changes in human brain. Additionally, previous study indicated that the Diffusion Kurtosis Imaging (DKI) is an advanced diffusion model without the assumption of Gaussian distribution. Taken together, it is feasible to utilize the DKI to investigate the structural neuroplasticity in early-blind brain. Our results demonstrated that the neural reorganization and compensatory development process induced by visual deprivation are coexisted in early-blind adolescents. Furthermore, the diffusion kurtosis metrics are more sensitive to detect the pathology and development related brain regions than diffusion tensor metrics.
This abstract and the presentation materials are available to members only; a login is required.