Congenitally blind adults can learn to identify face-shapes via auditory sensory substitution and successfully generalize some of the learned features.

ABSTRACT: Unlike sighted individuals, congenitally blind individuals have little to no experience with face shapes. Instead, they rely on non-shape cues, such as voices, to perform character identification. The extent to which face-shape perception can be learned in adulthood via a different sensory modality (i.e., not vision) remains poorly explored. We used a visual-to-auditory Sensory Substitution Device (SSD) that enables conversion of visual images to the auditory modality while preserving their visual characteristics. Expert SSD users were systematically taught to identify cartoon faces via audition. Following a tailored training program lasting ~ 12 h, congenitally blind participants successfully identified six trained faces with high accuracy. Furthermore, they effectively generalized their

SUBMITTER: Arbel R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8921184 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature