Maxime Bleau¹, Quentin Dessain², Laurence dricot², Ron Kupers², Maurice Ptito^1,3; ¹University of Montreal, ²Université Catholique de Louvain, ³Technical University of Denmark

Blindness significantly impacts the ability to acquire spatial information during navigation and to build cognitive maps for orientation in the environment. Possible consequences include reduced autonomy, increased anxiety, social isolation, and overall decreased quality of life. It is therefore important to investigate non-visual cognitive map formation and its underlying neural mechanisms, which are still poorly understood. To this goal, we used fMRI to study the neural correlates of cognitive map formation through touch and audition in individuals with congenital and acquired blindness, and sighted individuals as controls. We used a three-phased game-like paradigm, designed to differentiate between 1) the formation of a cognitive map, 2) its retrieval, and 3) use during navigation. In phase 1 (maze exploration), participants used their fingers to learn the layout of a tactile maze containing multiple destinations. In phase 2 (drop-off), participants were randomly placed inside a virtual rendering of the same maze and were given a goal destination. In phase 3 (navigation), participants navigated in this virtual space with auditory feedback to reach the destination. Results reveal distinct neural patterns during navigation in each group: sighted controls showed a reliance on frontal, insular, and parietal cortices, and blind subjects significantly activated visual occipital areas and cerebellum, combined with a generalized deactivation in the rest of the brain. However, when participants form, retrieve, or use their cognitive map, different activation patterns emerge across the navigation network (hippocampus, parahippocampal place area, retrosplenial complex, occipital place area), providing insights on their role and adaptation in blindness.

Acknowledgements: This study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Fonds de Recherche du Québec en Santé (FRQS)