FEDERATION OF EUROPEAN NEUROSCIENCE SOCIETIES
9th FENS Forum of Neuroscience
5-9 July 2014 – Milan, Italy
http://fens2014.neurosciences.asso.fr/
PRESS RELEASE
EMBARGOED UNTIL TUESDAY 8 JULY 2014, 17:15 CEST / 16:15 BST
BLIND PEOPLE’S SIXTH SENSE? PROBABLY NOT
It is commonly assumed that blind individuals have a better sense of hearing than those with
sight — a belief assuming that impaired vision is compensated for with enhanced auditory
sensitivity. But this 'sixth sense' appears to be a false myth, according to a recent study
described for the first time at the FENS Forum of Neuroscience in Milan. A new study in Italy on
a group of blind children indicated that their spatial orientation was not better than that of a
group of non-visually impaired children.
The research was conducted by a team led by Dr Monica Gori, as well as Dr Tiziana Vercillo, Dr
Giulio Sandini, Dr Elena Cocchi, and Dr David Burr of the RBCS department of the Italian
Institute of Technology of Genoa; in collaboration with the David Chiossone Institute for the
Blind and Visually Impaired, in Genoa. The study involved children with visual impairment since
birth.
During the experiment, children went through a series of complex hearing stimuli, and were
asked by scientists to establish the sounds’ origin. “In other experiments, all measurements by
far only considered single hearing stimuli, simpler than those we normally hear in the external
environment,” said Dr Gori. “For the first time we recreated a complex situation in which
relations between sounds had to be understood, more similar to the world of everyday life.”
The same exercise had been carried out several months prior, in an experiment led by Dr Gori
on adults patients with congenital blindness. The results, published last February in the journal
Brain, highlighted participants' significant difficulty in identifying complex hearing stimuli.
This new data on children confirmed what had already emerged from the research on adults:
that blind individuals actually do not hear better than those with sight. On the contrary, in
normal daily conditions their hearing might be worse than that of non visually impaired
individuals. “People with congenital visual impairment have some difficulties in identifying the
spatial relationship between sounds, when asked for example to evaluate a sound with respect
to others,” explained Dr Gori.
These results could completely overturn a long-lasting scientific debate. But according to Dr
Gori, this discovery is not particularly counter-intuitive. “Vision is a fundamental channel to
understand how the surrounding space is structured. Let’s think of the 'ventriloquist effect': the
mime’s voice is captured by the puppet's visual lip movements. However, previous results by far
seem to show that blind individuals hear better than sighted people. But this is in contrast with
some experiments on animals, which suggest that lack of sight can compromise spatial maps.”
The research results by Dr Gori and her colleagues clarify this debate. “The blind can develop
simple spatial hearing capacity, allowing the localisation of a clear sound, like a single person
talking. But when it comes to identifying complex relationships between sounds — for example,
the distance between three people talking to each other — sight become essential to orientate
in space.”
ABBI PROJECT
Data collected by Dr Gori’s team could lead to new and more effective rehabilitation treatment.
This belief led to a new European project: Audio Bracelet for Blind Interaction
(www.abbiproject.eu). The project's core idea is based on a new understanding of the role of
vision in the development of children with and without visual disability: that audio feedback on
body movements might help build a sense of space. The main method achieving this objective is
the Audio Bracelet for Blind Interactions (ABBI), a device providing spatial information on where
and how a movement is occurring. It is hoped that using ABBI should provide important
information for posture control, motor coordination, spatial orientation, and social interaction —
reducing the risk of exclusion for visually disabled individuals. Unlike most existing sensory
substitution devices introduced in late childhood or adulthood, the approach proposed in ABBI
does not require learning new 'languages', and it can be applied in the first years of life.
The project, coordinated by Dr Gori, was created from a collaboration of five European centres,
including the Italian Institute of Technology and the David Chiossone Institute in Genoa. Within
the next three years, the project will manage rehabilitation of more than 50 visually impaired
children from the first year of age.
END
Abstract Reference R10254: The role of multi-sensory interactions in sensory calibration
Symposia S47: What does cross-modal plasticity tell us about the way the senses interact
during development?
Contact
FENS Press Office and all media enquiries:
Elaine Snell, Snell Communications Ltd, London UK (English language)
tel: +44 (0)20 7738 0424 or mobile +44 (0)7973 953 794
email: Elaine@snell-communications.net
Mauro Scanu (Italian language)
tel: +39 333 161 5477
email: press.office@fens.org
Dr Monica Gori Monica.Gori@iit.it
NOTES TO EDITORS
The 9th FENS Forum of Neuroscience, the largest basic neuroscience meeting in Europe,
organised by FENS and hosted by the The Società Italiana di Neuroscienze (SINS) (Italian
Society for Neuroscience) will attract an estimated 5,500 international delegates. The
Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS), founded in 1998, aims to advance
research and education in neuroscience, representing neuroscience research in the European
Commission and other granting bodies. FENS represents 42 national and mono-disciplinary
neuroscience societies with close to 23,000 member scientists from 32 European countries.
http://fens2014.neurosciences.asso.fr/