Plasticity in Sensory Systems

Centered on three themes, this book explores the latest research in plasticity in sensory systems, focusing on visual and auditory systems. It covers a breadth of recent scientific study within the field including research on healthy systems and diseased models of sensory processing. Topics include visual and visuomotor learning, models of how the brain codes visual information, sensory adaptations in vision and hearing as a result of partial or complete visual loss in childhood, plasticity in the adult visual system, and plasticity across the senses, as well as new techniques in vision recovery, rehabilitation, and sensory substitution of other senses when one sense is lost. This unique edited volume, the fruit of an International Conference on Plastic Vision held at York University, Toronto, will provide students and scientists with an overview of the ongoing research related to sensory plasticity and perspectives on the direction of future work in the field.1. Plasticity in sensory systems Jennifer Steeves and Laurence R. Harris; Part I. Visual and Visuomotor Plasticity: 2. The distributed nature of visual object learning Hans Op De Beeck; 3. Motor adaptation and proprioceptive recalibration Danielle Salomonczyk, Erin Cressman and Denise Henriques; 4. Deficits and adaptation of eye-hand coordination during visually guided reaching movements in people with amblyopia Ewa Niechwiej-Szwedo, Herbert C. Goltz and Agnes Wong; Part II. Plasticity in Childhood from Abnormal Early Visual Experience and Blindness: 5. Human visual plasticity: lessons from children treated for congenital cataracts Daphne Maurer and Terri Lewis; 6. Living with one eye: plasticity in visual and auditory systems Krista Kelly, Stefania Moro and Jennifer Steeves; 7. Building the brain in the dark: functional and specific crossmodal reorganization in the occipital cortex of blind individuals Oliver Collignon, Guila Dormal and Franco Lepore; 8. Crossmodal plasticity in early blindness Josef Rauschecker; Part III. Plasticity in Adulthood and Vision Rehabilitation: 9. Visual plasticity of the adult brain Robert Hess and Benjamin Thompson; 10. Beyond the critical period: acquiring stereopsis in adulthood Susan Barry; 11. Plasticity and restoration after visual system damage: clinical applications of the 'residual vision activation theory' Carolin Gall and Bernhard Sabel; 12. Applying plasticity to visual rehabilitation in adulthood Shachar Maidenbaum and Amir Amedi.