What drives brain changes in macular degeneration?
In macular degeneration, the most common form of adult blindness, patients progressively lose vision in the center of their visual field, thereby depriving the corresponding part of the visual cortex of input. Previously, researchers discovered that the deprived neurons begin responding to visual input from another spot on the retina — evidence of plasticity in the adult cortex. Just how such plasticity occurred was unknown, but a new MIT study sheds light on the underlying neural mechanism. “This study shows us one way that the brain changes when its inputs change. Neurons seem to ‘want’ to receive input: when their usual input disappears, they start responding to the next best thing,” said Nancy Kanwisher of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT and senior author of the study appearing in the March 4 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. “Our study shows that the changes we see in neural response in people with MD are probably driven by the lack of input to a population o
