Congenital blindness modifies the neural basis of language: “visual” cortices respond to linguistic information, and fronto-temporal language networks are less left-lateralized. We tested the hypothesis that this plasticity follows a sensitive period by comparing the neural basis of sentence processing between adult-onset blind (AB, n = 16), congenitally blind (CB, n = 22) and blindfolded sighted adults (n = 18). In Experiment 1, participants made semantic judgments for spoken sentences and, in a control condition, solved math equations. In Experiment 2, participants answered “who did what to whom” yes/no questions for grammatically complex (with syntactic movement) and simpler sentences. In a control condition, participants performed a memory task with non-words. In both experiments, visual cortices of CB and AB but not sighted participants responded more to sentences than control conditions, but the effect was much larger in the CB group. Only the “visual” cortex of CB participants responded to grammatical complexity. Unlike the CB group, the AB group showed no reduction in left-lateralization of fronto-temporal language network, relative to the sighted. These results suggest that congenital blindness modifies the neural basis of language differently from adult-onset blindness, consistent with a developmental sensitive period hypothesis.

先天性失明改变了语言的神经基础：“视觉”皮层对语言信息做出反应，额颞叶语言网络的左偏性较低。我们通过比较成年失明者（AB，n  = 16）、先天性失明者（CB，n  = 22）和蒙眼视力正常的成年人（n  = 18）之间句子处理的神经基础，检验了这种可塑性遵循敏感期的假设。 。在实验一中，参与者对口语句子进行语义判断，并在控制条件下求解数学方程。在实验 2 中，参与者回答了“谁对谁做了什么”是/否问题，涉及语法复杂（具有句法运动）和简单句子。在控制条件下，参与者用非单词执行记忆任务。在这两个实验中，CB 和 AB 组（而非视力正常的参与者）的视觉皮层对句子的反应比对照条件更大，但 CB 组的效果要大得多。只有 CB 参与者的“视觉”皮层对语法复杂性做出反应。与 CB 组不同，AB 组相对于视力正常的人来说，额颞语言网络的左偏化没有减少。这些结果表明，先天性失明对语言神经基础的改变与成人失明不同，这与发育敏感期假说一致。