Visual experience shapes functional connectome gradients

Abstract

The human cortex is organized along continuous functional gradients that capture systematic transitions in functional connectivity across the brain. These gradients describe large-scale organizational principles, including hierarchical transitions from unimodal to transmodal regions. Here, we provide the first characterization of cortical gradients in a large sample of congenitally blind (n = 41) and sighted (n = 44) adults to assess the relative contributions of intrinsic (genetic) and experiential factors to cortical gradient organization. Using resting-state fMRI, we compared functional connectome gradients and their association with cortical structure. Both groups exhibited similar principal gradients: unimodal to transmodal, somatosensory to visual, and frontoparietal segregation, demonstrating that the fundamental scaffold of cortical organization emerges largely independently of visual experience. However, blindness altered specific features of the functional connectome: the visual network was more segregated from the sensorimotor network and more integrated with transmodal and frontoparietal networks. Moreover, blind individuals showed reduced canonical hierarchical ordering within early visual areas, weaker structure-function coupling in visual and temporal regions, and altered functional areal boundaries in V1. These findings suggest that the development of large-scale cortical gradients reflects a genetically guided scaffold that is subsequently refined by sensory experience.