[Nfbf-l] Is 'seeing' with sounds better than sight restoration inthe early blind?

[Mark Tardif]

This sounds interesting.  I can tell you that my sense is that if an adult 
who has been totally or near totally blind all his/her life were to suddenly 
have full sight, it could be quite traumatic for that person.  I have heard 
about real instances in which the person simply went back to using the 
blindness techniques and did not use this sight, for example, not turning 
their lights on in the evening.  I think your depth perception would be way 
off and their would be serious overstimulation, which might ultimately cause 
you to become psychotic.  I mean, imagine, your walking on a busy city 
sidewalk with crowds of pedestrians coming awfully close, lots of these big 
things we know as cars, buses and trucks, and this blindingly bright thing 
in the sky that we know as the sun.  If you don't have a sense of what 
vision is like in the first place and never have had this sense, I should 
think it would be frightening.  Even I, who have some light perception, and 
enjoy seeing the sun, think I would be "blown away."  Just my opinion.  If 
given the choice, I would rather remain blind, even if it meant the eventual 
loss of what little vision I have.

Mark Tardif
Nuclear arms will not hold you.
-----Original Message----- 
From: Alan Dicey
Sent: Monday, May 13, 2013 4:24 PM
To: NFB Florida List Group
Subject: [Nfbf-l] Is 'seeing' with sounds better than sight restoration 
inthe early blind?

Dear Friends,

Appended is the abstract of an upcoming presentation at IMRF 2013
(International Multisensory Research Forum) in Jerusalem, June 3-6, 2013.

Best wishes,

Peter Meijer
Seeing with Sound - The vOICe ( O I C)
http://www.seeingwithsound.com/winvoice.htm

'Visual'-parsing without visual experience:
Is 'seeing' with sounds better than sight restoration in the early blind?
Abstract.
Early-blind individuals who regained sight medically in adulthood,
demonstrated that functional-vision acquisition in adulthood is challenging. 
For
instance, Ostrovsky et al.1 reported poor behavior in static-visual-parsing 
(i.e.
segregating the image into distinct unified objects), a critical visual
concept and an ability required for performing any visual task in
natural-environments.
Another rehabilitation approach is to use non-invasive
Sensory-Substitution-Devices (SSDs), which transform visual images into
sounds.
Various abilities were demonstrated using SSDs, however 'visual'-parsing was
never directly tested.
Here we tested whether congenitally-blind adults can learn to perform
'visual'-parsing with SSD, using similar stimuli and approach to those used
by Ostrovsky et al.1, but this time with the visual information conveyed
through sounds; and compared the SSD users' performance to that reported for 
the
medically-sight-restored individuals.
The SSD users performed significantly above chance-level, following only ~ 
70 training hours. Interestingly, they outperformed the 
sight-restored-individuals, who had months of constant eyesight, in all 
tasks tested. In a second test,  we found that the SSD users could discern 
the vantage-point of 3D objects from  2D SSD images, a task requiring 
correct parsing (at least in the local-level).
Theoretically, the results demonstrate that the adult brain retains visual 
learning capacity; and suggests that with adequate training and technologies
some high-order visual aspects can be acquired in adulthood, even without
any visual-experience during developmental critical-periods. Practically, 
the
results support the potential use of SSDs as standalone daily-aids, but also
suggest a potential for combining invasive-restoration approaches with SSD
input and/or training to improve and enhance rehabilitation.

References.

1) Ostrovsky Y, Meyers E, Ganesh S, Mathur U, Sinha P. Visual Parsing After
Recovery From Blindness. Psychological Science 2009; 20 (12): 1484-1491.

By Lior Reich, Miriam Guendelman and Amir Amedi.

Source URL:
http://shoreserv.mcmaster.ca/IMRF/ocs5/index.php/imrf/2013/paper/view/136

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