4th Annual Meeting of the International Multisensory Research Forum
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Brigitte Roeder

The consequences of having no vision
Multiple Paper Presentation

Brigitte Roeder
Experimental and Biological Psychology, Philipps-University

     Abstract ID Number: 42

Abstract
It has been argued that the complete loss of one sensory system, as in congenitally blind individuals, has both positive and negative effects on the functionality of other sensory systems. On the one hand it has been suggested that sensory loss is followed by "sensory compensation", that is, the intact modalities improve in order to counteract the lost input. On the other hand crossmodal deficits have been postulated, because some functions may only fully develop if different modalities get the opportunity to interact during development. The latter has been suggested, for example for the development of spatial representations, because vision has been shown to tune the spatial maps of other modalities. On the other hand, there is evidence for compensatory behavioral changes in auditory and somatosensory perceptual tasks as well as in higher functions including language and memory. The possible contribution of different neural mechanisms, including intramodal and cross-modal changes to behavioral changes will be discussed.

To be Presented at the Following Symposium:
Consequences of sensory loss
Other papers in this Symposium:


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