For centuries, anecdotal evidence such as the perfect pitch of the blind piano tuner or blind musician has supported the notion that individuals who have lost their sight early in life have superior hearing abilities compared with sighted people. Recently, auditory psychophysical and functional imaging studies have identified that specific auditory enhancements in the early blind can be linked to activation in extrastriate visual cortex, suggesting crossmodal plasticity. Furthermore, the nature of the sensory reorganization in occipital cortex supports the concept of a task-based functional cartography for the cerebral cortex rather than a sensory-based organization. In total, studies of early-blind individuals provide valuable insights into mechanisms of cortical plasticity and principles of cerebral organization.

几个世纪以来，诸如盲人钢琴调音师或盲人音乐家的完美音高等轶事证据支持这样一种观点，即与有视力的人相比，早年失明的人具有更好的听力。最近，听觉心理物理和功能成像研究已经确定，早期盲人的特定听觉增强可能与纹状体外视觉皮层的激活有关，表明交叉模态可塑性。此外，枕叶皮层感觉重组的性质支持大脑皮层基于任务的功能制图概念，而不是基于感觉的组织。总的来说，对早盲个体的研究为皮质可塑性机制和大脑组织原理提供了有价值的见解。