Reconsidering the regenerative capacities of babies’ brains
A study by neuroscientists at UCLouvain has shown that the brains of people who have undergone surgery for blindness at birth regenerate better if the operation is carried out at an early age.
Every year, babies are born with early blindness due to congenital cataracts, requiring surgery to restore their sight. “This period of several months without vision can have a lasting impact on how the brain processes visual details, but surprisingly little on the recognition of faces, objects or words.” This is the main finding of an international study led by Professor Olivier Collignon of the UCLouvain Institute of Neuroscience.
According to this study published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature, it has recently been found that, for babies born blind and who underwent surgery in their first months of their life, only part of their brain is permanently altered, while another part of the brain remains surprisingly intact.
In practical terms, the area of the brain that analyses details retains a lasting alteration, while the more advanced regions of the visual brain, responsible for recognising faces, objects, and words, function almost normally.
This means the regenerative capacities of newborn brains are far greater than science had previously claimed.
Source: https://focusonbelgium.be