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Changes in the Blind and the Deaf are Not Limited to Sensory Cortices

Poster Session E - Monday, March 9, 2026, 2:30 – 4:30 pm PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Ayşe Betül Varol^1,2, Tamer Gezici^1,2, Şehmus Kurt^1,2, Yasemin Güçlütürk⁴, Mohini Verma², Ausaf Ahmed Farooqui^1,2,3; ¹Bilkent University, Ankara, Türkiye, ²Aysel Sabuncu Brain Research Center, Ankara, Türkiye, ³National Magnetic Resonance Research Center, Ankara, Türkiye, ⁴Sign Language Program, TÖMER, Ankara University, Ankara, Türkiye

Changes in the visual cortices of the blind and the auditory cortices in the deaf have been of massive neuroscientific interest. Across a number of tasks, we found that changes in these populations are not limited to their deprived sensory cortices and involve very widespread regions that include the cognitive control-related frontoparietal and the default mode regions. We had blind, and deaf participants, both of whom acquired these conditions congenitally or early in life, execute two cognitive control tasks (auditory/visual working memory updating and tactile decision making), both of which had easy and hard blocks). A group of sighted and hearing control participants, as well as a group of children born to deaf parents and using sign language as their first language, were also tested. We found that activations in control-related frontoparietal regions to control demands were almost absent in deaf participants. In neither of the two tasks did deaf participants show control-related activation in their frontoparietal regions. Accompanying these muted activations were the muted deactivations in the default mode regions. In the blind, frontoparietal activations and default mode deactivations were comparable to those in the sighted except for the bilateral temporoparietal junctions. These regions deactivated more to control demands in the blind, and this was the case in both of the demanding tasks we tested. Blindness and deafness are not just accompanied by changes in their respective sensory cortices but also involve changes in other brain networks. Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) grant 121K902.

Topic Area: EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Other