[bksvol-discuss] Re: Fwd: Fw: If a blind person gained sight, could they recognize objects previously touched?

From: Cindy <popularplace@xxxxxxxxx>
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2006 17:54:51 -0700 (PDT)
Sue,

One person in the article went blind at 10 months and
regained his sight through corneal transplants 50
years later. The other was 3 1/2when he lost his sight
and regained it at 43, though it doesn't say how. the
article does say that the age at which one loses one's
sight seems to make a difference.

In case you missed the article or deleted it before
becoming interested (I've done that at times--deleted
something I wasn't interested in until it began to be
discussed here and then had to go to the trash and
hope it hadn't been emptied by the mail
provider--smile) I've included it here.

Cindy 

PhysOrg.com
Thursday, April 20, 2006

If a blind person gained sight, could they recognize 
objects previously
touched?

By Source: Research/Penn State, By Joe Anuta

Most people conceptualize the world largely based on 
sight, and would find
it difficult to function using touch alone. Think 
about finding the keyhole
on your car door at night, or locating that light 
switch in a dark room.
Even if it's too dark to see, a seeing person uses his

or her visual memory,
along with the tactile sense, to navigate the physical

world and accomplish
the task at hand.

However, the interconnectedness of sight and touch is 
not a given for the
blind.

Cathleen Moore, associate professor of psychology, 
explains that the areas
processing visual and tactile information are located 
on the wrinkly,
outermost shell of the brain, called the neurocortex. 
"Sight is located on
the back of the brain, and touch along the sides, near

the top."

A connection was verified between the two senses in 
sighted people, Moore
says, through a test using functional Magnetic 
Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to
analyze brain activity. Without looking, the subjects 
described objects they
could only examine with their hands. "Despite being 
blindfolded, their
visual areas were very active. It's as if they 
translated tactile sensations
into visual terms," states Moore. "Obviously, these 
are integrated."

But although sighted people can picture tactile 
information in their head,
the neurocortex is configured slightly differently for

those who can't see.

"It's not like the visual area just atrophies for 
blind people," explains
Moore. Instead, the visual area gets taken over by the

tactile. This concept
is called neuroplasticity, the ability of the 
neurosystem to reconfigure
itself.

Because of this different brain configuration, blind 
people who regain their
sight may find themselves in a world they don't 
immediately comprehend. "It
would be more like a sighted person trying to rely on 
tactile information,"
Moore says.

Learning to see is a developmental process, just like 
learning language, she
continues. "As far as vision goes, a three-and-a-half 
year old child is
already a well-calibrated system."

As an example of the process, she referenced two case 
studies where blind
men regained their sight later in life. Their 
experiences illustrate some of
the difficulties in making the transition from 
blindness to the world of
visual imagery, as well as the surprising importance 
of one's age at the
onset of blindness to one's successful adaptation to 
sight.

One man known as S.B., in a study conducted by British

neuropsychologist
Richard Gregory and reported in the journal Nature, 
lost his sight at 10
months old, only to regain it 50 years later through 
cornea transplants. He
could recognize several objects despite never having 
seen them, but other
aspects of vision left him bewildered, Moore says.

S.B. could tell time from the hands of a clock from 
previously feeling an
open-faced watch, and identify cars and trucks from 
having repeatedly washed
his relative's car.

"I would infer that he just formed a generally 
applicable spatial
representation of these, so conceptualizing the 
position of hands on a clock
or the shape of a car didn't matter if it came through

visual or tactile
sources," Moore says. "When he gained vision, it was 
easier for him to
interpret them."

"What he wasn't good at was drawings. He basically 
couldn't extract depth
from them," she adds. For S.B., a painting of a 
countryside landscape was
simply a collage of colors and a drawing of a cube 
simply a series of lines
on a page. Gregory's study tentatively attributed this

problem to a part of
the brain inappropriately scaling objects, causing 
S.B. to misjudge their
size.

The other man, American Michael May, whose case was 
reported by CBS News in
2003, went blind at 3 1/2 and regained sight at 43. 
Surprisingly, although
losing sight much later in his childhood, he had a 
harder time adjusting to
vision than S.B. "He can't recognize the faces of his 
wife and children,"
Moore says. "One possible explanation for this is that

while May was blind,
he was essentially trying to compare tactile 
sensations to visual images he
obtained as a child, instead of forming a general 
spatial representation
like S.B., who could only recall the colors red, 
black, and white.

So while we might think giving sight to the blind 
would be akin to taking
off a blindfold, it is not that simple. The 
acquisition of sight for S.B.
and May brought hardship along with opportunity. 
"After surgery, some people
who regain their sight can become very depressed," 
Moore states. "For S.B.,
he expected the visual world to hold all of this 
promise, but it didn't. It
was dull, and bland." S.B. never learned to read, and 
sometimes wouldn't
bother flipping on the light at night.

Although S.B. died two years after his surgery, May 
has since gotten better
at understanding his vision, confirms Moore. "He is 
learning to see like an
adult learns a second language, slowly and through a 
lot of hard conscious
work. It's very unlike the way a child learns a 
language -- quickly and
seemingly effortlessly. The intriguing difference 
between S.B.'s and May's
cases implies that there are critical periods for 
learning to see, just as
there are heightened periods for language learning."


http://www.physorg.com/news64769651.html

--- siss52 <siss52@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> 
> 
> 
> 
> HHHas anyone who was totally blind at birth ben
> made, by srgery, to see
> after they became an adult????  Understand, I am not
> speaking of someone who
> could see for a few years....  I am speaking of
> someone who has been totally
> blind until at least, say age 21, and then gained
> sight???  If so, has this
> person ever written about how it is????  I would be
> very interested to read
> about it if this has really happened....  And told
> by the person who
> experienced it and gave his/her name???
> 
> Sue S.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Monica Willyard" <plumlipstick@xxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Friday, April 21, 2006 5:25 PM
> Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Fwd: Fw: If a blind
> person gained sight, could
> they recognize objects previously touched?
> 
> 
> >
> > >I guess this sounds a little weird, but I'm not
> sure I'd want to see
> > >if I had the chance.  I've never had sight and
> was born with no
> > >optic nerves.  My parents used to tell me that
> one day science would
> > >make me able to see.  No one has asked whether
> I'd choose it if I
> > >could.  I think they assumed that I'd jump at the
> chance.  I'm
> > >honestly not sure and would feel more fear than
> excitement over
> > >it.  I might like reading or being able to walk
> without a cane or
> > >guide dog.  That would take a lot of work though
> if it could even be
> > >done.  The thought of new input in my head that I
> couldn't turn off
> > >makes me feel queasy.
> >
> >
> > Monica
> > Visit my blog at:
> http://plumlipstick.livejournal.com
> >
> >  To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email
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> >
> >
> >
> > --
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> Release Date: 4/20/06
> >
> >
> 
> 
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> 


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References:
- [bksvol-discuss] Re: Fwd: Fw: If a blind person gained sight, could they recognize objects previously touched?
  - From: siss52
[bksvol-discuss] Re: Fwd: Fw: If a blind person gained sight, could they recognize objects previously touched?

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