Tactile perception of blind and sighted persons

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Two interesting types of changes -- known as neuroplasticity -- are observed in the brains of blind people.  In blind Braille readers, an unusually large portion of the tactile part of the brain is devoted to processing information from the Braille reading fingertip.  Even more remarkably, the normally visual areas of the cerebral cortex become responsive to touch in blind persons.  The purpose of this proposal is to determine what, if any, are the perceptual consequences of these two features of the brains of blind people.  Do blind people have a heightened sense of touch due to either or both of these changes?  The proposal will address this question by testing blind Braille readers, nonreaders, and a sighted comparison group on different tactile tasks involving the perception of textures and of vibrations.  Electroencephalagraphic brain activity will also be monitored during the performance of these tasks in some of the participants.