[nfb-talk] Fw: Hebrew U scientists help blind 'see ' by activating their visual brain cortex

[Gloria Whipple]

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Gloria Whipple

-----Original Message-----
From: nfb-talk [mailto:nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Ed Meskys
Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2013 13:16
To: nfb-talk; nhblind-talk
Subject: [nfb-talk] Fw: Hebrew U scientists help blind 'see ' by activating
their visual brain cortex

To: edmeskys at roadrunner.com 
Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2013 6:11 PM
Subject: Hebrew U scientists help blind 'see ' by activating their visual
brain cortex


Hebrew U scientists help blind 'see with eye music' 
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH 
Jerusalem Post 01/08/2013
Device for sensory exchange activates visual cortex to help those born blind
describe objects, letters and words. 
By activating their visual brain cortex, people who were born blind can
describe objects and even identify letters and words, with the proper
stimulation and using a device for sensory exchange developed by Hebrew
University researchers.

The research team, headed by Prof. Amir Amedi of the Edmond and Lilly Safra
Center for Brain Sciences and Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada
and including doctoral student Ella Streim- Amit, has just published their
findings in the journal Neuron; a summary of their research also appeared in
the journal Science.

They developed a unique training program for seeing using the device, which
transfers visual information to the blind via their healthy senses.

The device translates pictures into tones; after a few dozen hours of
training, the blind from birth can identify images and put them in visual
categories such as faces, houses, parts of the body, ordinary objects and
textures.

They can also locate people, identify facial expressions and read letters
and words, thus being able to "see" enough to exceed the World Health
Organization minimum to be regarded as sighted.

Amedi said on Sunday that for decades, it is has been known that if the
visual cortex does not receive visual information after birth, it doesn't
properly develop the normal visual structure and skills, and thus visual
reconstruction was thought to be impossible. But when the team checked what
happens in the brains of blind people who learned to "see" via sounds, their
visual cortex functioned even though they had learned to process images only
when they reached adulthood, he said.

The researchers also found that the brains of the blind from birth had
visual preferences similar to those with normal sight when they reacted to
different kinds of visual stimulation. For example, the part of the brain
used for reading showed that in the blind, as in the sighted, there was
increased activity in reaction to pictures of letters and words. In
addition, this region proved to be so flexible that one of the blind people
tested was able to react to such images after a two-hour training session.

"The brain of adults is more flexible that what we assumed," Amedi said.

"These findings show it may be that the brains of blind people, even for
long periods, can 'wake up' to process vision through rehabilitation,
including new medical developments such as retinal implants [artificial
eyes]."

Additional research in the field by Amedi's team with Dr. Sheli Levi-Zedek
that was published in the journal Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience
presented a device for sensory exchange. Using it, the blind from birth
could cover their eyes and still carry out rapid and exact movements toward
targets. Using a non-invasive device called "eye music" involving pleasant
music, the blind were able to "see" with sounds.

In training sessions of as little as half an hour, 18 blind from birth
people were able to tell the difference between a red or a green apple.

This paves the way for future hybrid devices, including a receptor implanted
in the eye together with "eye music." 
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