Tactile perception of blind and sighted persons

在盲人的大脑中观察到了两种有趣的变化--称为神经可塑性。盲人阅读盲文时，大脑触觉部分的一大部分异常地用于处理来自盲文阅读指尖的信息。更值得注意的是，盲人大脑皮层的正常视觉区域对触摸产生反应。这项提议的目的是确定，如果有的话，盲人大脑的这两个特征的感知结果是什么？盲人是否会因为这两个变化中的一个或两个而提高触觉？该提案将通过测试盲人盲文阅读器、不阅读盲文的人和一个有视力的对照组来解决这个问题，这些任务涉及对纹理和振动的感知。在执行这些任务的过程中，一些参与者的脑部活动也将受到监测。

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.