Thesis Statement:
There is a lot of conjecture regarding the possibility of a person who suffers from losing one of their senses, resulting in one or more of their four remaining senses improving. What is taking place in the patient’s brain, or how has the perception of their other senses improved or changed?
I chose this particular topic to write about because I find the subjects of senses and perceptions interesting. Furthermore, there are a plethora of scientific and scholarly sources of information on the topic. One such source is a journal article documenting psychophysical tests conducted on both sighted and blind participants in the attempt to gain information regarding improvements in the blind study groups’ sense of smell (Cuevas,
Plaza, Rombaux, Collignon, De Volder, & Renier, 2010). In another scholarly journal article, tests were conducted to determine if the blind control group had better hearing over the sighted control group by comparing auditory reaction time (Gandhi, Gokhale, Mehta, & Shah, 2013). By listening for bells, horns, whistles, and rings, participants were to acknowledge these sounds quickly as possible. Each of the two journal articles has different results. In one study, the blind participants performed better than their sighted counterparts, in the other study, both groups performed equally. My research will involve many other scientific and scholarly sources. However, if I begin to feel my thesis is too broad for my research paper, I will narrow my thesis statement to focus only on losing one specific sense and improving another particular sense. References: Cuevas, I., Plaza, P., Rombaux, P., Collignon, O., De Volder, A. G., & Renier, L. (2010). Do People Who Became Blind Early in Life Develop a Better Sense of Smell? A Psychophysical Study. Journal Of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 104(6), 369-379. Gandhi, P. H., Gokhale, P. A., Mehta, H. B., & Shah, C. J. (2013). A Comparative Study of Simple Auditory Reaction Time in Blind (Congenitally) and Sighted Subjects. Indian Journal Of Psychological Medicine, 35(3), 273-277. doi:10.4103/0253-7176.119486
The first, which he refers to as the “weak view” (5), is that we simply perceive with different sense modalities (e.g. touch, taste, vision, etc.). But, this view appears inadequate in the face of physiological and experiential evidence. O’Callaghan points out that neurological pathways activate in unison, and that our perception appears to us as one continuous experience, rather than subdivided into individual experiences of each different sense. (6) O’Callaghan admits that the senses often outwardly appear to be unimodal, experience does not seem broken up into different senses but appears continuous. He then goes on to support this claim with evidence from psychological
Some might refer to "seeing" as simply to watch with a naked eye, while some would refer to it as being able to witness an event and recall upon it later. In fact, some would even go as far as that if someone hasn't witnessed something visually, he basically hasn't "seen" it. However, in his essay "The Mind's eye," Oliver Sacks seemingly breaks the norm. In his essay, the blind's adaptation to their disadvantaged is talked about. Yet, it seems like those who were victims of the neurological disorder seem better off blind. Furthermore, another question hanging in the balance is whether the blind people are actually "adapting" to their new lives or rather "reforming" how they will live? Through various stories of blind people, he is able to
Hemineglect does not just present itself visually, but also through other senses such as motor neglect, auditory neglect, representational neglect and also personal neglect (Plummer, Morris, & Dunai, 2003). Hemineglect is not a result of sensory disorder. It is not uncommon to receive left hemisphere lesions or trauma and gain hemisphere remission. It does seem however that it is easier to treat and rehabilitate patients to a full recovery if this damage has occurred, compared to right hemisphere damage. Hemineglect is present when there is damage to the dorsal/ visual pathway in the brain which leads from the occipital lobe of the brain to the parietal lobe.
Blindsight is often understood as supporting certain claims concerning the function and the status of the phenomenal qualities of visual perceptions. In this talk I am going to present a short argument to show that blindsight could not be understood as evidence for these claims. The reason is that blindsight cannot be adequately described as a special case of seeing. Consequently, it is not possible to draw inferences from it concerning the role of the phenomenal qualities for seeing.
During my childhood I was diagnosed as having poor eyesight and was prescribed glasses to assist with my vision correction. I realize how blessed I am to have had that as an option. I was always in awe of the environment and creatures who inhabited the various areas of nature. The sense of vision is very important and without the ability to see an individual would be missing out on many colorful life experiences. Blindness, which is the lack of the ability to see is a very dark and challenging disability. Without one’s eyes, everyday activities such a walking, reading, eating and identifying people can be a struggle. It has been proven that the brain will adapt to the loss by giving itself a makeover. If one sense is lost,
Blindness is defined as the lack of visual perception. Blindness can also be defined as not being able to see things for what they really are. One may be able to see but may not be able to see the true meaning of something. Black communities often refuse to see the way that white people treat them. In Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man many events contribute to the overall theme of sight vs. blindness.
According to Carole Wade and Carol Tavris, sensory adaptation is the reduction or disappearance of sensory responsiveness that occurs when stimulation is unchanging or repetitious. Senses are designed to respond to change and contrast in the environment. When a stimulus is unchanging or repetitious, sensation often fades or disappears. Sensory adaptation has it's beneficial effects along with it's negative ones. Sometimes the adaptation causes people to spares us time and effort by not responding to certain information. Other times it causes us to miss something important...which could have a drastic outcome.
Ms. Toering’s passion for teaching and the ability to lead students to success in the classroom has been shaped over the past 13 years as she has taught. Here at Eureka High School Ms. Toering teaches Spanish 1 and Spanish 4; however, there is more to Ms. Toering than what meets the eye.
Auditory localization is the ability to recognize the location from which a sound is emanating (Goldstine, 2002). There are many practical reasons for studying auditory localization. For example, previous research states that visual cues are necessary in locating a particular sound (Culling, 2000). However, blind people do not have the luxury of sight to help them locate a sound. Therefore, the ability to locate sound based only on auditory ability is important. It is also important to study different auditory processes. For example, when studying a way for a blind person to maneuver through an environment, it is helpful to know that people can most accurately locate sounds that happen directly in front of them; sounds that are far off, to the side, or behind the head are the least likely to be properly located (Goldstein, 2002).
A continuing theme that one cannot avoid when considering developing anything geared specifically toward the blind is that all visual, sight-based elements are useless. However, this is not to say that the designer is greatly limited or handicapped. The wealth of possibilities that exist through taking advantage of all our other, non-exploited senses is endless.
By absorbing information and convert them into a meaningful information, that could help us to understand the life and make good and wise decisions. There is minimal amount of stimulations have to occur, so our organ can detect these stimuluses and that is the absolute threshold, which is basically means that you will not be able to smell something really far from you, unless that thing hit the minimal amount of stimulation and your nose can smell it now. The lack or the loss of one or more sense would make a big gap in how we experience things around us and a perception failure will make it harder to understand the full image of what is going on around us and it will cause an inability to respond to a current situation. For example, if someone is blind, it will be hard for the brain to get the full image and to understand it in order to make a wise decision. But amazingly our brain relays on other sensory organs to get the information that is needed to get a full image in order to survive. I have a friend who was blind since he was two years old, when I asked him how do you see or how do you imagine the chair, he described the chair exactly as we see it, but with no color. His brain works with the lack of visual information as a way to relay on other sensory organs to achieve the same results that we can see and he cannot. It does not mean
In terms of cross-modal aural communication, sensory inputs can travel from primarily auditory regions in the thalamus to regions specializing in visual processing (e.g. thalamothalamic interactions). Possible mechanisms that allow for cross-modal plasticity include the formation of new connections or the preservation of previous neural connections between sensory cortices. Also, the loss of a sense (e.g. acquired blindness) can unmask “silent” connections, leading to cross-modal activity. None of these mechanisms are all-encompassing in explaining plasticity, but rather, there might be a variable combination of these mechanisms depending on the age of blindness onset. Through TMS experimentation, there is evidence to show
Blindness can be so much more than the state of being unable to see (Dictionary.com). Both the 2008 movie Blindness, directed by Fernando Meirelles and based on a novel by José Saramago, and the short story The Country of the Blind written by H. G. Wells in 1904, put blindness at the center of the plot. What can blindness mean in our society? And what can blindness mean regarding my future profession in design? In the movie Blindness, to be blind leads to losing all that’s civilized; in H. G. Wells’ The Country of the Blind, blindness can be interpreted as a symbol for ignorance; finally, in graphic design, blindness could be to only focus on the aesthetic part of designing and forgetting the practical aspect of the design.
Powerful and atmospheric, and oddly structureless, The Mission, is a magnificently filmed and strongly political view of the conflict between church, State and capitalism. The film captures beautiful shots of the jungle in Paraguay and the Guarani people. As the Jesuits try to convert the Indians to Christianity, they face many obstacles due to human conflict between the French and Portuguese who valued the Indians differently than the Jesuits did. In the 1700’s many had no clue to the massive slaughter that was about to take place as the French and Portuguese colonists forced the Guarani into slavery. At this point in the film, if one is familiar with South American history they will start to feel vaguely sick at the prospect of the inevitable
While it is nearly impossible for a blind student to be completely self-sufficient in the chemical laboratory, it is desirable to develop techniques that can serve to help them into chemistry. A good olfactory acid-base indicator would be of great utility in increasing the participation of the visually impaired in the chemistry laboratory.