TY - JOUR TI - Massive cortical reorganization in sighted Braille readers AU - Siuda-Krzywicka, Katarzyna AU - Bola, Łukasz AU - Paplińska, Małgorzata AU - Sumera, Ewa AU - Jednoróg, Katarzyna AU - Marchewka, Artur AU - Śliwińska, Magdalena W AU - Amedi, Amir AU - Szwed, Marcin A2 - Johansen-Berg, Heidi VL - 5 PY - 2016 DA - 2016/03/15 SP - e10762 C1 - eLife 2016;5:e10762 DO - 10.7554/eLife.10762 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.10762 AB - The brain is capable of large-scale reorganization in blindness or after massive injury. Such reorganization crosses the division into separate sensory cortices (visual, somatosensory...). As its result, the visual cortex of the blind becomes active during tactile Braille reading. Although the possibility of such reorganization in the normal, adult brain has been raised, definitive evidence has been lacking. Here, we demonstrate such extensive reorganization in normal, sighted adults who learned Braille while their brain activity was investigated with fMRI and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Subjects showed enhanced activity for tactile reading in the visual cortex, including the visual word form area (VWFA) that was modulated by their Braille reading speed and strengthened resting-state connectivity between visual and somatosensory cortices. Moreover, TMS disruption of VWFA activity decreased their tactile reading accuracy. Our results indicate that large-scale reorganization is a viable mechanism recruited when learning complex skills. KW - visual system KW - somatosensory system KW - fMRI JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -