Improvement in Spatial Imagery Following Sight Onset Late in Childhood
The factors contributing to the development of spatial imagery skills are not well understood. Here, we consider whether visual experience shapes these skills. Although differences in spatial imagery between sighted and blind individuals have been reported, it is unclear whether these differences ar...
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Sage Publications
2016
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/102503 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8259-7079 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5886-9003 |
| _version_ | 1826212208246259712 |
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| author | Gandhi, Tapan Kumar Ganesh, Suma Sinha, Pawan |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Gandhi, Tapan Kumar Ganesh, Suma Sinha, Pawan |
| author_sort | Gandhi, Tapan Kumar |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The factors contributing to the development of spatial imagery skills are not well understood. Here, we consider whether visual experience shapes these skills. Although differences in spatial imagery between sighted and blind individuals have been reported, it is unclear whether these differences are truly due to visual deprivation or instead are due to extraneous factors, such as reduced opportunities for the blind to interact with their environment. A direct way of assessing vision’s contribution to the development of spatial imagery is to determine whether spatial imagery skills change soon after the onset of sight in congenitally blind individuals. We tested 10 children who gained sight after several years of congenital blindness and found significant improvements in their spatial imagery skills following sight-restoring surgeries. These results provide evidence of vision’s contribution to spatial imagery and also have implications for the nature of internal spatial representations. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:17:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/102503 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:17:44Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | Sage Publications |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1025032022-09-29T14:02:15Z Improvement in Spatial Imagery Following Sight Onset Late in Childhood Gandhi, Tapan Kumar Ganesh, Suma Sinha, Pawan Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Gandhi, Tapan Kumar Sinha, Pawan The factors contributing to the development of spatial imagery skills are not well understood. Here, we consider whether visual experience shapes these skills. Although differences in spatial imagery between sighted and blind individuals have been reported, it is unclear whether these differences are truly due to visual deprivation or instead are due to extraneous factors, such as reduced opportunities for the blind to interact with their environment. A direct way of assessing vision’s contribution to the development of spatial imagery is to determine whether spatial imagery skills change soon after the onset of sight in congenitally blind individuals. We tested 10 children who gained sight after several years of congenital blindness and found significant improvements in their spatial imagery skills following sight-restoring surgeries. These results provide evidence of vision’s contribution to spatial imagery and also have implications for the nature of internal spatial representations. James S. McDonnell Foundation National Eye Institute 2016-05-16T12:43:13Z 2016-05-16T12:43:13Z 2014-01 2013-03 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0956-7976 1467-9280 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/102503 Gandhi, T. K., S. Ganesh, and P. Sinha. “Improvement in Spatial Imagery Following Sight Onset Late in Childhood.” Psychological Science 25, no. 3 (January 9, 2014): 693–701. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8259-7079 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5886-9003 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797613513906 Psychological Science Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf Sage Publications PMC |
| spellingShingle | Gandhi, Tapan Kumar Ganesh, Suma Sinha, Pawan Improvement in Spatial Imagery Following Sight Onset Late in Childhood |
| title | Improvement in Spatial Imagery Following Sight Onset Late in Childhood |
| title_full | Improvement in Spatial Imagery Following Sight Onset Late in Childhood |
| title_fullStr | Improvement in Spatial Imagery Following Sight Onset Late in Childhood |
| title_full_unstemmed | Improvement in Spatial Imagery Following Sight Onset Late in Childhood |
| title_short | Improvement in Spatial Imagery Following Sight Onset Late in Childhood |
| title_sort | improvement in spatial imagery following sight onset late in childhood |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/102503 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8259-7079 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5886-9003 |
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