Cortical Plasticity in Retinal Disease: Mechanisms of Reorganization following Vision Loss

Retinal disease, whether caused by age-related macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, inherited macular and cone–rod dystrophies, or diabetic retinopathy, was long thought to leave the visual cortex it deprives essentially silent. Over the past two decades, that view has been overturned: neurons formerly driven by the lesioned retina begin responding to stimulation from surrounding, intact regions, receptive-field properties shift, and measurable functional and structural remodeling emerges across the visual pathway. Understanding the mechanisms, limits, and behavioral consequences of this plasticity is now central to both basic visual neuroscience and the design of restorative and rehabilitative therapies.This Research Topic invites researchers to report new work on how the human visual brain reorganizes in response to retinal disease. Our focus is deliberately mechanistic: we want to clarify what changes, where, on what timescale, and why, linking cellular and circuit-level accounts of plasticity to measurable reorganization in patients. We are particularly interested in contributions that combine converging methods, quantify individual variability in plastic capacity, and establish rigorous, reproducible measures of cortical reorganization suitable for tracking disease progression and therapeutic response.We welcome Original Research and Methods articles. Original Research contributions may draw on human neuroimaging (fMRI, retinotopic and population receptive-field (pRF) mapping, magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), structural and diffusion MRI, MEG/EEG), psychophysical and behavioral assessment of low-vision function, and computational modeling of cortical reorganization, ideally in combination. Methods contributions are especially encouraged where they advance the measurement of plasticity itself: new mapping paradigms, analysis pipelines, reproducible biomarkers of reorganization, and modeling frameworks that generate testable predictions about how the deprived cortex adapts. Studies pairing mechanistic insight with translational relevance to visual rehabilitation are particularly welcome, provided the emphasis remains on understanding the underlying neural change.The stakes extend beyond basic science. A new generation of interventions, from gene therapies to retinal prostheses, depends on a cortex able to make use of restored or rerouted input, so understanding how, and how far, the deprived brain remains plastic is a decisive factor in whether these therapies succeed. By bringing mechanistic, methodologically rigorous work together in one collection, this Research Topic aims to consolidate current understanding of plasticity in the diseased visual system, standardize how it is measured, and define the questions that will shape the next decade of research.We invite contributions addressing retinal disease of any etiology that alters input to the central visual pathways, from focal foveal loss to widespread photoreceptor degeneration, across themes including:• Cortical reorganization following foveal versus peripheral retinal lesions, including the contested question of whether the lesion projection zone acquires genuinely new, behaviorally useful responses.• pRF and retinotopic remapping, and how these measures relate to the topography and progression of the underlying retinal pathology.• Structural correlates of deprivation, including gray-matter, white-matter, and microstructural changes along the geniculostriate and extrastriate pathways.• Perceptual learning, eccentric-viewing behavior, and preferred-retinal-locus development, and the behavioral limits of adaptive plasticity in low vision.• Individual differences and predictors of plastic capacity, including age of onset, residual function, and the balance of excitation and inhibition.• Methodological advances for quantifying reorganization: pRF and retinotopic mapping paradigms, MRS measures of cortical excitability, multimodal imaging, and computational models that formalize and predict cortical remodeling. Topic editors: Mark W. Greenlee, John S (Jack) Werner Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/84223/cortical-plasticity-in-retinal-disease-mechanisms-of-reorganization-following-vision-loss