Early blindness is associated with cross‑modal reorganization of occipital cortex, yet the functional role of this activity remains unclear. This dissertation examined whether top‑down and bottom‑up attentional mechanisms modulate occipital activation in early blind (EB) individuals and whether such modulation relates to enhanced non‑visual performance. Using event‑related fMRI and auditory, tactile, and bimodal oddball tasks, results showed that both salient distractors and selectively attended targets evoked occipital responses in EB participants, but not sighted controls. Findings indicate that attentional processes contribute to occipital cross‑modal reorganization and may underlie behavioral advantages observed in early blindness.
