Plasticity in language and sensory processing: Age-related patterns of intrinsic functional architecture in congenital blindness

Abstract Congenital blindness provides a unique model for studying sensory deprivation and experience-dependent brain plasticity. While neural plasticity is pronounced during early sensitive periods, it remains unclear how the brain’s intrinsic functional architecture changes across development in congenital blindness and how changes relate to higher-order cognitive functions, such as language processing. We integrated multimodal resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging metrics with language behavioral components in 31 congenitally blind individuals (children and adults) and matched sighted controls. Two distinct age-related patterns emerged: (1) elevated metrics in ventral temporal and frontal regions during blind childhood that diminished in adulthood, and (2) reduced metrics in dorsal parietal regions in blind childhood that became enhanced in adulthood. Among resting-state metrics, regional homogeneity and degree centrality–reflecting local synchrony and network-level integration–were particularly sensitive to these age-related changes. Behaviorally, significant brain-language correlations were evident primarily in adults.In both blind and sighted adults, the intrinsic functional architecture of the inferior frontal and middle temporal gyrus correlated with modality-independent language-related processing. In addition, experience specialization also emerged: the left hippocampus preferentially correlated with visual- and language-related processing in sighted adults, whereas the left superior temporal gyrus preferentially correlated with language-related processing in blind adults.In contrast, blind children exhibited a broader network correlated with tactile processing. These findings suggest that the intrinsic functional neural plasticity in congenital blindness is a dynamic and multi-level process, and its formation may be shaped by multiple factors such as the inherent structure, experience, and age.