Vision substitution and depth perception: early blind subjects experience visual perspective through their ears.

Aim.Sensory substitution (SS) represents a unique opportunity to provide congenitally blind persons with visual-like experience. Although visual experience influences the way we perceive the external world, little is known about the effects of SS experience. Purpose.To investigate the effects of per...

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Publicado en:Disability & Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology Vol. 5; no. 3; pp. 175 - 184
Autores principales: Renier L, De Volder AG
Formato: pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article
Publicado: Taylor & Francis Ltd May2010
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      dt: May2010
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      pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd
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        atl: Vision substitution and depth perception: early blind subjects experience visual perspective through their ears.
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          Renier L
          De Volder AG
        affil: Neural Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory, Institute of Neuroscience, Université Catholique de Louvain, UCL 54-46, B-1200, Brussels, Belgium; laurent.renier@uclouvain.be
      sug:
        subj:
          Adaptation, Physiological
          Blindness Physiopathology
          Depth Perception Physiology
          Ear
          Adolescence
          Adult
          Analysis of Variance
          Assistive Technology Devices
          Descriptive Statistics
          Female
          Funding Source
          Human
          Male
          Middle Age
          Perception
          Task Performance and Analysis
          Adolescent: 13-18 years
          Adult: 19-44 years
          Middle Aged: 45-64 years
          Female
          Male
      ab: Aim.Sensory substitution (SS) represents a unique opportunity to provide congenitally blind persons with visual-like experience. Although visual experience influences the way we perceive the external world, little is known about the effects of SS experience. Purpose.To investigate the effects of perceptual experience (visual versus sensory substitution) on depth perception through an SS system, object localization abilities of early blind (n=10), and blindfolded sighted control subjects (n=20) were assessed before and after a practicing period with a visual-to-auditory SS device. Method.During the pre- and post-test, subjects had to replace, by hand, an object previously localized using the device. The practicing phase consisted of three sessions during which subjects tried to localize and grasp an object using the device. Results.At the pre-test, sighted subjects spontaneously used efficiently different pictorial depth cues to estimate object distance while the blind subjects were affected by their lack of visual experience and were significantly less accurate. Post-test showed that the brief practicing phase sufficed to enable blind subjects to acquire the rules of visual depth and to use them efficiently with the device. Conclusions.These results suggest the possibility to compensate for some effects of early and long-lasting blindness by providing visual-like experience via SS. Theoretical implications are discussed.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        pictorial
        research
        tables/charts
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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