Plate 18 Results of PET scanning in congenitally blind subjects during localization of sounds presented via
headphones in virtual auditory space (data from Ref. 19). Areas in the occipital cortex that are driven by visual
stimuli in sighted individuals are now activated during sound localization. Note that the right hemisphere seems
to profit more from the expansion of auditory into visual territory. The ‘rewiring’ seems to be mediated by the
parietal cortex, consistent with studies on visually deprived animals.
Plate 19 Auditory cortical activation while listening to music. Averaged group results of functional magnetic
resonance imaging are shown. While the processing of music by the right cerebral hemisphere has often been
emphasized (as opposed to language, which is thought to be processed primarily on the left), it is now generally
accepted that different aspects of music are processed by bothhemispheres.