Symposium: Can the Blind See?
Multiple Paper Presentation
Alvaro Pascual-Leone
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School
Abstract ID Number: 5 Symposium Overview
Monet wished he had been born blind, because he believed that it would have enhanced his artistic perception of the world. Picasso stated that painting was a blind man’s profession, as blind people have a clearer vision of reality. Dramatic plastic changes take place in the brain following loss of sight, which contribute to the adaptation to blindness and result in behavioral advantages for the blind. However, does the recruitment of visual cortex for tactile and auditory processing imply that blind people can see? Do the ‘qualia’ evoked by touch or sound become visual? What does this imply for rehabilitation of the blind and restoration of vision? What does this teach us about the fundamental organization of the human brain and the perception of reality? These questions will be addressed from the perspective of visual sensory substitution, neurorehabiltiation in the blind, and restoration of sight through neuroprostheses.
Papers in this Symposium:
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