The phrase “blind as a bat” takes a whole new meaning as studies have found that blind humans can be trained to echolocate like bats and dolphins do. It might be strange to imagine humans doing so, but there are cases where blind people have learned to echolocate by making a sharp click using their mouths. This sound, in turn, bounces back off nearby objects, where their ears subsequently detect the echo.
In a study to test the areas of the brain involved in echolocation among blind echolocators, a group of researchers from Western’s Centre for Brain and Mind found that these subjects tend to use the visual part of the brain to process the clicks and echoes. Meanwhile brain activity in areas used to process auditory information was no different from sound recordings of outdoor scenes without echoes.
This study suggests that visual brain areas are important for blind people to echolocate, and there is a possibility that sighted people can learn it too. Even without vision, echolocation allows blind or visually impaired people a great degree of independence in their daily lives.
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