Is visual input essential to how the topographical map of
the visual cortex develops in the human brain?
In new research published today, scientists at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem and in Germany and the USA show that the way in which
the brain organizes its visual sense remains intact even in people who are
blind from birth, and that at least the pattern of functional connectivity
between the visual area and the topographical representation of space (up/down,
left/right, etc.) can develop on its own without any actual visual experience.