E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSBill Briggs writes: The news release from the science lab contained one eye-popping word: “Research discovers how the deaf have super vision.”
“Super?” Seriously? When we think of super sight, we flash on a caped man flying with an “S” on his chest, peering into hideouts with X-ray vision. Can Marlee Matlin see through walls? No.
But she does probably see more acutely than those who can hear. New research suggests that many congenitally deaf people possess two types of extraordinary sight: Expanded peripheral vision and the ability to detect motion imperceptible to the hearing.
For example, when people with normal hearing stand at a clock’s center and stare at the 12, they probably can see the 10 and 2. But those with congenital deafness typically can also detect the 9 and 3, says Stephen Lomber, an associate professor and researcher with the Centre for Brain and Mind at the University of Western Ontario.
Also, deaf people recognize when an object that appears stationary to those with hearing is actually moving very slowly.
“These are abilities that most of us as humans – or most animals – don’t have,” he adds. Until now, scientists have been unable to explain how this happens. But according to research published today in Nature Neuroscience, Lomber and his team found that people who are born deaf or who lose their hearing early in life tap a brain area called the auditory cortex. That swath of gray matter, meant to process sound, is rewired to boost sight.
They figured this out by testing cats – some born deaf, some with full hearing and then confirmed the results through interviews with deaf people. The scientists used banks of LED screens to gauge and compare the cats’ peripheral vision and motion detection. The team checked its findings by chilling and shutting off the deaf cats’ auditory cortexes. All the amplified vision normally exhibited by the deaf cats suddenly vanished.
“They lost the super part,” Lomber said.
The brain’s ability to remake itself may mean that congenitally deaf people also have keener senses of touch and smell, Lomber theorized.
“The brain is a pretty efficient structure,” he said. “It’s not going to let processing capacity go to waste. If it’s not going to use it on sound, it’s going to use it on something else.”
Are any of your senses especially keen? Tell us about it in the comments.
Find The Body Odd on Twitter and on Facebook.
Want more weird health news? Find The Body Odd on Facebook.
Leave a Comment:
I wish this worked for me, this compensation. If I take off my glasses I can't see or hear.
I've always had super extended vision or superior far sightedness. I attribute this to living in a rural area and as a child developed better distance vision. I believe the wide open distances enhanced my far sightedness as a child.
the brain is amazing and I hope we continue to learn more about how it can compensate when one region is damaged for any reason.
MY BRAIN completely compensates for the absence of my wife by diverting her entire functionality to my hand. JK
After I use a saline rinse to squirt up my nose to rinse my sinuses, I develop super smell.
Then I realize how foul my dog smells. Yuck. She Reeks. Having super smell has it's disadvantages.
It has long been a bit of a folklorish/wives tale that when someone looses a sense, especially at an early age, their other senses 'sharpen' to help compensate.
I knew a guy who was legally blind and he could "feel" the heat from a lightbulb and remind everyone to turn the lights off when they were not in the room.
When my wife drives, my brain compensates by making me lose all sense of motion and proximity. I thinks it's a survival instinct.
My carpentry instructor in trade school always used to say, 'If all else fails, grunt louder'. That, and be sure to hold your lips in just the right position when doing anything deemed 'touchy' where one slip is likely to screw it all up...
...but speaking of screwed up, when I went to comment on the story about grunting giving a person a psychological advantage, why the heck did it send me to the comments for the story about deaf people having their remaining four senses enhanced? That's a computer for you, I guess!
Maria Sharapova is a perfect example of this - and she should be stopped (as well all other players) that grunt unneccesarily. Sharapova's grunting is a cry for help, a cheap trick to throw her opponent off and has almost singlehandidly gotten me off of women's tennis. It is totally wrong because it is not directly related to the effort - it is intentional whether a herculian effort is required or not - her scream is atrocious and really a rules violation. Remember what happened to the first real grunter (Monica Seles)... now I don't want anyone to get stabbed but the grunting has got to stop. The funny part is that all of the grunters stop for a point or two sometime - and you go "wow" she does not need to do that. Serena is a terrible, occassional grunter too. A rule needs to be made and enforced.