èƵ

Brain origins of ‘blindsight’ revealed

The spooky phenomenon that allows some blind people to navigate around objects has been pinned down to connections in the thalamus
[video_player id=”EsTgHOI6″]Video: Blind man avoids obstacles

SOME blind people have the remarkable ability to navigate physical obstacles without consciously perceiving them (see video, above). It now looks like they have their (LGN) – part of the thalamus in the middle of the brain – to thank for this “blindsight”.

That’s according to a team at the US National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland. They used macaques in which parts of the primary visual cortex had been destroyed.

The monkeys’ eye-focusing movements, coupled with scans of brain activity, revealed that they were “seeing” images shown in the “blind” part of their visual field, but only if their LGN was intact (Nature, ).

Topics: Brains / Psychology