Auditory processing in visual brain areas of the early blind: evidence from event-related potentials

Abstract

Auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded in early blind subjects and sighted controls when they attended to stimuli delivered to a designated ear under dichotic conditions. The scalp distribution of the processing negativity (PN), the endogenous negativity elicited by attended stimuli, was in the blind posterior to that in the sighted. This suggests that posterior brain areas normally involved in vision participate in auditory selective attention in the early blind. Furthermore, occasional higher-frequency tones in the to-be-ignored ear elicited a negativity (presumably the mismatch negativity; MMN) that had a posterior scalp distribution in the blind as compared to controls. This suggests that the posterior brain areas of the blind also participate in processing of auditory stimulus changes occurring outside the focus of attention.