ENHANCED BRAIN ACTIVITY PRECEDING VOLUNTARY MOVEMENT IN EARLY BLIND HUMANS

Effects of blindness on movement-related brain activity were investiga ted by measuring from the scalp movement-related potentials (MRPs) ass ociated with self-paced button presses in blind and sighted young adul ts. The blind subjects had lost their vision at an early age due to a deficit in the peripheral visual system. The negative slope (NS') of M RP at about 400 ms prior to movement and the preceding readiness poten tial (RP) were larger in the blind than in the sighted subjects, but w ere similarly distributed on the scalp in these groups. The results su ggest functional changes in the blind subjects' brain activity, presum ably, in the cortical areas involved in preparation and initiation of voluntary movement. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.