Functionally specific multi-sensory brain networks and their plasticity

Professor : Olivier Collignon

Evolution has endowed humans with several senses allowing them to capture distinct forms of energies from their physical environment, opening different windows through which we can experience the world around us. Being able to capture redundant sensory information allows us to build stronger representations and react faster to an event (eg  focusing on the lips while listening to a speaker in a cocktail party). How do we represent in our mind and brain a perceptual unit that we can see and hear (eg, a corresponding phoneme/viseme)?  Is there representation somewhere in the brain that goes beyond the sensory experience we have of things? The presence of these different sensory systems also paves the way for considerable flexibility by allowing brain systems to supplement another following sensory deprivation. In the talk, I will rely on the most recent data collected in my lab to suggest that crossmodal plasticity in blind and deaf people recycles the intrinsic multisensory scaffolding of functional brain regions, with a specific emphasis on face and voice networks.