BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//NextToU//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VEVENT UID:0390bbbe-5d5f-4f7d-8505-47ef745ac02d@nexttoyou DTSTAMP:20261105T160330Z DTSTART:20261105T210000Z DTEND:20261105T230000Z SUMMARY:Colloquium on the Brain and Cognition with Marina Bedny LOCATION:Building 46 Singleton\, 43 VASSAR ST\, Cambridge\, MA 02139 DESCRIPTION:Talk Title: Language and sensory experience - insights into na ture/nurture and human adaptability\n\nAbstract: How do nature and nurtur e interact during cortical development? Anthropologists have long pointed out that humans occupy a wide range of habitats. Most humans live in env ironments far different from those in which our brains evolved. Early sen sory differences\, like blindness and d/Deafness\, are an example of nich e diversity and provide a window into the mechanisms of human cortical sp ecialization.\nI will discuss studies of language neurobiology across pop ulations with diverse sensory experiences: congenitally blind braille rea ders and d/Deaf signers. I will make three points. First\, there is a rec ent revival of the view that human brains are all functionally "the same. ” Comparing visual cortex function across blind and sighted adults as wel l as infants suggests otherwise. The visual cortices of congenitally blin d adults are robustly and selectively activated by braille and spoken lan guage. A unique case study of an individual with sight recovery suggests that early blindness enables visual cortices to take on language and brai lle reading functions\, and this developmental pattern of "cross-modal" p lasticity is not undone even by 25 years of vision in adulthood. Data fro m sighted infants suggest that "cross-modal" responses in blindness have their roots in patterns of infant brain connectivity. Cortical function i s not invariant across individuals but rather is shaped by\n\nhttp://next -to-u.app/events/0390bbbe-5d5f-4f7d-8505-47ef745ac02d URL:http://next-to-u.app/events/0390bbbe-5d5f-4f7d-8505-47ef745ac02d END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR