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Improved auditory spatial tuning in blind humans

Nature volume 400, pages 162–166 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

Despite reports of improved auditory discrimination capabilities in blind humans1,2,3 and visually deprived animals4, there is no general agreement as to the nature or pervasiveness of such compensatory sensory enhancements5. Neuroimaging studies have pointed out differences in cerebral organization between blind and sighted humans6,7,8,9,10,11,12, but the relationship between these altered cortical activation patterns and auditory sensory acuity remains unclear. Here we compare behavioural and electrophysiological indices of spatial tuning within central and peripheral auditory space in congenitally blind and normally sighted but blindfolded adults to test the hypothesis (raised by earlier studies of the effects of auditory deprivation on visual processing13,14) that the effects of visual deprivation might be more pronounced for processing peripheral sounds. We find that blind participants displayed localization abilities that were superior to those of sighted controls, but only when attending to sounds in peripheral auditory space. Electrophysiological recordings obtained at the same time revealed sharper tuning of early spatial attention mechanisms in the blind subjects. Differences in the scalp distribution of brain electrical activity between the two groups suggest a compensatory reorganization of brain areas in the blind that may contribute to the improved spatial resolution for peripheral sound sources.

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Figure 1: Speaker layout and response gradients.
Figure 2: Event-related potentials to standard stimuli.
Figure 3: Topographic voltage maps of the N1 attention effect (attended minus unattended amplitudes) and the normalized anterior–posterior sca.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the San Diego Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the Braille Institute of America (San Diego), and the Blind Recreation Center in San Diego for help in recruiting blind participants; L. Anllo-Vento for helping to recruit matched sighted controls; C. Nava for help during data acquisition; and M. Marlow for computer assistance. This work was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and grants from the National Institutes of Mental Health and National Institutes of Health.

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  1. Brigitte Röder: Correspondence and requests for material should be addressed to B.R.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Philipps-University Marburg, Gutenbergstrasse 18, Marburg, 35037, Germany

    Brigitte Röder

  2. Department of Neurosciences, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, 92093-0608, California, USA

    Wolfgang Teder-Sälejärvi & Steven A. Hillyard

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, 78457, Germany

    Anette Sterr

  4. Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, 97403-1227, Oregon, USA

    Frank Rösler & Helen J. Neville

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  5. Steven A. Hillyard
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  6. Helen J. Neville
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Röder, B., Teder-Sälejärvi, W., Sterr, A. et al. Improved auditory spatial tuning in blind humans. Nature 400, 162–166 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/22106

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