Effects of early visual impairment on spatial encoding of complex pattern in human brain
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1
All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India
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2
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusette Institute of Technology , United States
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3
Computer Services Centre, Indian Institute of Technology , India
Developmental neuroscience paradox has been to resolve if somesthetic system alone is responsible for orientation of space or is complemented by the visual system. It has been reported that [Luís Aureliano Imbiriba, Erika Carvalho Rodrigues, José Magalhães and Claudia Domingues Vargas Motor imagery in blind subjects: The influence of the previous visual experience Neuroscience Letters , 400(1-2): 181-185, 2006] early blindness evolves non-visual strategy to resolve spatial tasks where as late blindness requires visual input. However, Zaira Cattaneo et al.2007, have presented alternate view that severe visual deficit occurring later in life significantly impairs spatial imagery abilities to a greater extent than in the case of congenital blindness. The present study compares the mental imagery and cognitive abilities of the sighted (blind folded) with visually impaired (congenital) subjects during encoding of spatial complex patterns. An attempt has also been made to investigate the involvement of visual experience while performing a given task among the subjects. Using experimental protocol, mental imagery was simulated and abilities of experimental group (visually impaired subjects, N=30) were compared with gender and age matched control group (sighted subjects, N=30).A protocol was developed and subjects were asked to form a mental image of a grid (2x2, 3x3, and 4x4 matrices). Instructions were randomly given and responses were recorded. The results indicate that the neural encoding mechanisms may not be efficient in case of congenital blind population due to the visual deficit for complex pattern for which the transmodal transformation (from haptic to visual) impairs spatial imagery abilities significantly as the task becomes complex.
Conference:
10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience, Bodrum, Türkiye, 1 Sep - 5 Sep, 2008.
Presentation Type:
Oral Presentation
Topic:
Perceptual Processing and Recognition
Citation:
Gandhi
TK,
Sinha
P,
Santhosh
J and
Anand
S
(2008). Effects of early visual impairment on spatial encoding of complex pattern in human brain.
Conference Abstract:
10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience.
doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.01.376
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Received:
16 Dec 2008;
Published Online:
16 Dec 2008.
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Correspondence:
Tapan K Gandhi, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India, gandhitk@gmail.com