Blind man astounds scientists


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A man left totally blind by brain damage has astounded scientists by flawlessly navigating an obstacle course without the help of a cane.

Experts believe it was the most dramatic demonstration yet of 'blindsight' - the strange ability some blind people have to detect things they cannot see.

The man, known as TN, was already known to react to the facial expressions of others.

Scans revealed the reality of his responses by indicating specific areas of brain activity triggered by expressions of fear, anger and joy in sighted people.

Yet TN, who suffered damage to both sides of his brain from consecutive strokes, is completely blind. He walks with the aid of a stick to track obstacles, and has to be guided around buildings.

Scientists investigating TN's blindsight ability constructed an obstacle course consisting of randomly arranged boxes and chairs.

TN was then asked to cross it without the help of his cane or another person.

Astonishingly, he managed to get through the course without once bumping into an obstruction. Several onlookers who witnessed the feat burst into spontaneous applause.

Blindsight is thought to be caused by primitive visual pathways that operate on a subconscious level. Even though a person might not consciously be able to see, the brain may still respond to visual stimuli below the level of awareness.

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or he was clicking

There is a kid who has been blind from birth who can see with sonar by clicking

Whoa... Thats crazy, going to see if I can look that up

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Blindsight is thought to be caused by primitive visual pathways that operate on a subconscious level. Even though a person might not consciously be able to see, the brain may still respond to visual stimuli below the level of awareness.

His eyes are fine and still provide stimuli. The problem is that the part of his brain that processes sight was damaged, so he no longer consciously experiences sight. But the brain has an amazing way of rewiring itself, so it's very much possible his brain responds to the visual stimuli in other ways.

Using sonar to see would not provide so much detail as to be able to read facial expressions.

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man, this is really sad, the main point of this story is the suffering and bravery of this person. i hope he can find much more happiness in life. terrible, there's so much pain in the world.

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His brain will be able to function a lot better with this technique but you can get an idea how it works by going to a wall, closing your eye's making a ticking noise and moving back and forth, it sounds different. Then put a pillow on the wall and it sounds different again.

Then you just need a lot of focus and practice for larger distances. But problem for me is how can he detect any holes or curbs in the pavement, I think it only works for objects directly in front of him.

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His eyes are fine and still provide stimuli. The problem is that the part of his brain that processes sight was damaged, so he no longer consciously experiences sight. But the brain has an amazing way of rewiring itself, so it's very much possible his brain responds to the visual stimuli in other ways.

Using sonar to see would not provide so much detail as to be able to read facial expressions.

I agree, it's more than just using sonar. The brain is rewriting the neural pathways so it can get that information in other ways.

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I agree, it's more than just using sonar. The brain is rewriting the neural pathways so it can get that information in other ways.

Yep -- thru psychic abilities ;)

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Yep -- thru psychic abilities ;)

I think a lot of what we call psychic is really just our subconscious at work. We are aware of many things on that level that our conscious mind is never aware of.

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Yep -- thru psychic abilities ;)

That's a catch phrase like "magic" that people throw out when they don't understand the situation fully.

In this example the person's eyes work perfectly fine but he cannot consciously form an image in his visual cortex due to stroke damage. The subconscious level of his brain, however, is able to detect obstacles through his eyes even if his conscious brain can't form an image of it. So he ends up knowing thngs (like the facial expressions of the people he talks to) without really (consciously) knowing why he knows these things. It isn't psychic abilities and it isn't magic.

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I think a lot of what we call psychic is really just our subconscious at work. We are aware of many things on that level that our conscious mind is never aware of.

+1 The brain filters out a lot of sensory information (otherwise we be overwhelmed with too much input) but I think in this case it's unblocked enough to compensate.

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I think its what others have said. Since he is blind from a stroke his brain is seeing but not consciously.

The brain is a wonderful thing. Heck doctors still cant figure out how i woke up from 3 comas without any brain damage at all (nevermind what caused them). So I can see how the brain can see without consciously showing the images.

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I think its what others have said. Since he is blind from a stroke his brain is seeing but not consciously.

The brain is a wonderful thing. Heck doctors still cant figure out how i woke up from 3 comas without any brain damage at all (nevermind what caused them). So I can see how the brain can see without consciously showing the images.

We see this a the hospital all the time, not sure how this is news? I have seen blind stroke patients avoid obstacles they did not know where their. One time I asked one of them why he curved and walked to the left and he said I don't know why do you ask. The brain is amazing.

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