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rTMS of the occipital cortex abolishes Braille reading and repetition priming in blind subjects

From the PET Unit and Department of Surgical Pathophysiology (R.K., M.P.), Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Neurology and Neuroanatomy (A.M.d.N., J.S., A.F.), University of Liège, Belgium; and Ecole d’Optométrie (M.P.), Université de Montréal, Quebec, Canada.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. R. Kupers, PET Unit, KF3982, Rigshospitalet, Blegdamsvej 9, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark; e-mail: ron{at}pet.rh.dk

To study the functional involvement of the visual cortex in Braille reading, we applied repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over midoccipital (MOC) and primary somatosensory (SI) cortex in blind subjects. After rTMS of MOC, but not SI, subjects made significantly more errors and showed an abolishment of the improvement in reading speed following repetitive presentation of the same word list, suggesting a role of the visual cortex in repetition priming in the blind.

Supported by a grant from the Lundbeck Foundation and the Svend Andersen Foundation.

Disclosure: The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Received May 24, 2006. Accepted in final form November 7, 2006.