Figure 8.

Brain regions more strongly activated by the haptic identification of facial expressions relative to shoes (H_FE − H_S) for the early blind compared with the sighted group. This contrast was evaluated within the brain regions activated by H_FE − H_S in the early blind group. The size of activation was thresholded at P < 0.05, corrected for multiple comparisons, when the height threshold was set at Z > 2.58. (A) The activation patterns were superimposed on a surface-rendered T1-weighted high-resolution MRI averaged across the subjects. (B) The activation pattern was superimposed on the sagittal section. (C) The bar graphs indicate the activity (contrast estimates) for identification of facial expressions relative to shoes using a volume of interest with an 8-mm diameter sphere. Asterisks above the error bars indicate the results of the one-sample t-test on the contrast estimates, whereas asterisks between the error bars indicate the results of the independent t-tests. Data are presented as the mean ± SEM of 17 early blind and 22 sighted subjects.