Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 36 (2012) 1179–1187 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews jou rnal h omepa ge: www.elsevier.com/locate/neubiorev Review The role of visual experience for the neural basis of spatial cognition Achille Pasqualotto * , Michael J. Proulx ** Biological and Experimental Psychology Group, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, UK a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 19 June 2011 Received in revised form 16 January 2012 Accepted 28 January 2012 Keywords: Multisensory integration Spatial cognition Visual experience Reference frames Spatial representation Neural plasticity Blindness Sensory deprivation a b s t r a c t Blindness often results in the adaptive neural reorganization of the remaining modalities, producing sharper auditory and haptic behavioral performance. Yet, non-visual modalities might not be able to fully compensate for the lack of visual experience as in the case of congenital blindness. For example, developmental visual experience seems to be necessary for the maturation of multisensory neurons for spatial tasks. Additionally, the ability of vision to convey information in parallel might be taken into account as the main attribute that cannot be fully compensated by the spared modalities. Therefore, the lack of visual experience might impair all spatial tasks that require the integration of inputs from different modalities, such as having to represent a set of objects on the basis of the spatial relationships among the objects, rather than the spatial relationship that each object has with oneself. Here we integrate behavioral and neural evidence to conclude that visual experience is necessary for the neural development of normal spatial cognition. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1179 2. The impact of blindness on spatial tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1180 3. The special nature of vision for spatial tasks .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1181 4. Is visual experience necessary for the full development of multisensory integration? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1181 5. Multisensory integration for spatial cognition: impairment by early blindness .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1181 6. The neural basis of spatial cognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1182 7. The basis of spatial cognition in the blind brain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1182 8. Neural plasticity in the metamodal brain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1183 9. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1183 Acknowledgment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1184 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1184 1. Introduction The study of blind individuals affords a unique opportunity to investigate the role of vision for a wide range of cognitive and per- ceptual processes and on brain development. More importantly, by distinguishing between congenital and late blind, we can assess the developmental role of the visual experience for a variety of cognitive phenomena. In this review we will initially discover that the lack of vision produces adaptive reorganization in the spared * Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 0 20 7882 5555x3464. ** Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 0 20 7882 7484. E-mail addresses: a.pasqualotto@qmul.ac.uk (A. Pasqualotto), m.proulx@qmul.ac.uk (M.J. Proulx). modalities. Then we will narrow down our attention to focus on spatial tasks. In particular we will review the way visual experience affects other modalities, its role for multisensory integration, and how visual experience impacts the brain areas involved in spatial processing. We suggest that visual experience might be crucial to develop the multisensory integration necessary for normal spatial cognition. Traditionally it has been suggested that the lack of vision sharpens the remaining modalities (James, 1890) and a vast num- ber of empirical studies reported that blind individuals showed unimpaired or even superior tactile and auditory discrimination and localization, verbal processing, memory span and long term memory (Alary et al., 2008; Amedi et al., 2003; D’Angiulli and Waraich, 2002; D’Angiulli et al., 1998; Hamilton et al., 2004; Heller, 1989; Hull and Mason, 1995; Lessard et al., 1998; Norman and 0149-7634/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2012.01.008