Novel sensations in the congenitally blind

Pons, Tim

Tim Pons is in the Department of Neurosurgery, Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27157-1029, USA.

Nature 380(6574):p 479-480, April 11, 1996.

A report on page 526 of this issue shows that, in blind subjects, the primary visual cortex becomes activated via the neural pathways mediating the sensation of touch. The implications of this finding are many and various.