The Temporal Stability of Visual Cortical Processing in Humans Depends on Early Experience

Proper timing is essential for effective neural processing. Yet, how early postnatal vision shapes the temporal stability of human visual cortical processing remains unknown. Here, using electroencephalography, we examined cortical timing properties in individuals who were born pattern-vision blind due to congenital cataracts, but surgically recovered sight. While sight-recovery individuals exhibited an attenuated cortical oscillatory phase coherence (i.e., higher temporal variability) during visual processing, their cortical oscillatory strength was unimpaired. Moreover, phase coherence information, but not activation strength, allowed classification of sight-recovery individuals from control individuals. Finally, exchanging phase information between sight-recovery and control individuals indicated oscillatory timing impairments as the source of group differences in higher-order visual cortical processing. Neural timing impairments were specific to reversed congenital blindness, that is, were not observed in individuals with reversed developmental (late-onset) cataracts. These results suggest that the development of intricately temporally orchestrated visual cortical processing in humans requires early visual experience.