The role of visual experience for the neural basis of spatial cognition

Blindness often results in the adaptive neural reorganization of the remaining modalities, producing sharper auditory and haptic behavioral performance. Yet, non-visual modalities might not be able to fully compensate for the lack of visual experience as in the case of congenital blindness. For example, developmental visual experience seems to be necessary for the maturation of multisensory neurons for spatial tasks. Additionally, the ability of vision to convey information in parallel might be taken into account as the main attribute that cannot be fully compensated by the spared modalities. Therefore, the lack of visual experience might impair all spatial tasks that require the integration of inputs from different modalities, such as having to represent a set of objects on the basis of the spatial relationships among the objects, rather than the spatial relationship that each object has with oneself. Here we integrate behavioral and neural evidence to conclude that visual experience is necessary for the neural development of normal spatial cognition.

► Blindness produces adaptive neural reorganization in non-visual modalities. ► Congenital blindness might negatively affect allocentric spatial representation. ► Developmental visual experience might be necessary for multisensory integration for spatial cognition. ► The brain areas involved in spatial processing are multisensory integration centers. ► Visual experience might be necessary to fully develop the brain areas necessary for normal multisensory integration and spatial cognition.