• Question: When people become blind, why do they, when walking, know alot of things and were to go, i wouldn't if i were blind. Did the learn it of by heart or just become special when they are blind

    Asked by kfcisnice to Susanne on 19 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Susanne Muekusch

      Susanne Muekusch answered on 19 Nov 2012:

      Hi kfcisnice,

      A lot of it is learning by heart. If you are familiar with your environment your brain will remember where things are. I can find the light switch when its dark and I remember not only the right side of the floor but also the height and the distance from the door. My brain saves this spatial information somewhere and I hit the light switch almost on the first attempt. When we moved here that was not the case!

      It is the same with stairs you are used to- you do not have to look at the steps, you can run- no problem! Your brain knows that stair. But don’t try that with an unfamiliar stair- you’d better watch where you are going. Even if you cannot remember this information conciously, your brain knows by how much to lift the foot.

      We all have this spatial orientation independently from sight, but we usually do not notice. THat is, blind people do learn it by heart, but they also become a bit special: Blind people can learn to interpret sound in a way that they get information such as how big the room is.
      In an extreme example they can learn to “see” via echolocation- similar to what bats or dolphins do. Look here for more information:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_echolocation

      Taking together, blind people rely on their remaining senses and some have special abilities because they trained those remaining senses. They do not develop extra senses.

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