In sighted people, seeing human bodies or body parts selectively activates the extrastriate body area (EBA) of the visual cortex; however, it is not known whether EBA activation and hence development of a body-image network occurs in the absence of visual stimuli. Striem-Amit and Amedi trained congenitally blind individuals to 'see' two-dimensional images by translating them into auditory 'soundscapes'. In this group, exposure to soundscapes of full-body silhouettes induced functional MRI responses in the EBA, and sighted individuals showed similar responses when shown the same silhouettes. In the blind individuals, EBA activation was selective for body shapes over objects, faces and textures, and the right EBA displayed functional connectivity to parts of the body-image network. Thus, EBA activation may be independent of sensory mode.