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Chapter 24 Bihemispheric plasticity after acute hand deafferentation

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Publisher Summary This chapter summarizes experiments showing that deprivation of somatosensory input could also elicit organizational changes in the hemisphere contralateral to the deafferented one. The existence of interactions among homotopic sites within cortical representations in both hemispheres provides a substrate for such an effect. It has been proposed that chronic deafferentation, in association with long-term practice as in blind, deaf, or individuals with amputation results in compensatory gains in the same and in other sensory modalities. However, the long-term changes described are mild and the question whether blind or deaf people develop enhanced capacities of their remaining senses is still controversial. Acute deafferentation leads to rapid changes of contra and ipsilateral cortical representations. Much less is known about the behavioral consequences of acute deafferentation in humans. It is conceivable that there are “built-in” mechanisms by which interruption of sensory input from one region leads to perceptual compensatory enhancements in a different site. An immediate behavioral improvement in a different body site or modality following acute deafferentation could reflect the existence of compensatory mechanisms to allow coping with the new deficit.