Re: Is it brain plasticity, or what?

[Ward Drennan <ward@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Peter,

That's certainly an interesting account. Assuredly, these signals are
becoming important and useful to the woman and she is highly motivated
to use the device. Other than speech and perhaps music for musicians, I
can't imagine anything thing else that would be so cognitively demanding
(Maybe SONAR operation?) There is an article my mentor Chuck Watson
(watson@indiana.edu) mentioned often. It's a long term study of
telegraphy perception and production published in 1898 or 1899. The
author was Miller. The plots in that paper showed some  'Eureka' periods
or times of sudden, dramatic improvement.

Ward Drennan
----- Original Message -----
From: Peter Meijer <peter.b.l.meijer@PHILIPS.COM>
To: <AUDITORY@lists.mcgill.ca>
Sent: Thursday, November 02, 2000 9:03 AM
Subject: Is it brain plasticity, or what?


> Dear List,
>
> Yesterday I received the following intriguing report from a totally
> blind user of The vOICe auditory display, and I wonder what your
> interpretation as auditory experts and brain researchers would be
> on this:
>
> > Two observations I do want to share with you.  First as I said I
wear the
> > program daily.  Well the other day I was again washing dishes.  I
had let
> > the water out of the sink and turn to get a towel to dry my hands.
Then
> > when I turn back to rinse the sink I was stunned to see the sink in
a "
> > depth" like image.  I stepped  away from the sink and walked slowly
up to
> > it again to see if my mind was playing tricks on me. No the feeling
of
> > seeing depth in the sink bowl was still there.  I remember when I
was a kid
> > of looking down into a well.  It was like looking down a long tunnel
till
> > you saw the reflection of the water which always gave me the feeling
of
> > depth.  Looking at the sink was like that.  Trying to puzzle this
new
> > experience out I began walking around and noticing how things and
rooms
> > were sounding to me.  I know from touch and " my mind's impressions"
what
> > my different rooms should look like but now I am standing in the
doorways
> > of the rooms in my house and sensing the depth of the room with my
mind
> > filling in the rest of the picture.  Is it possible that the body
and mind
> > can get so used to the input from the sound scapes that you can
sense
> > depth?  I am not saying I can feel this sensation while i am walking
yet
> > but it is there when I am standing and looking at things.
> >
> >  next funny thing which happened to me relates to the wearing of the
voice.
> >  I just purchased a new portable CD player.  To hear this particular
player
> > you must use headphones.  I wanted to see what it would be like to
hear the
> > music as I did my house work.  while standing still no problem.
Then I
> > began walking around..  Suddenly I was stumbling into walls and over
> > tables.  I could not believe how clumsy I was.  Then it hit me. DA,
Patty
> > the CD is not giving you the information you have grown accustom to
with
> > the Voice program.  I had to concentrate while wearing the headphone
of the
> > CD.  I tell you it was like being blinded again.  I could barely
find
> > anything in my house.  What a difference !
> >
> > Now if I can figure out how to use the CD and Voice together and not
loose
> > the information of the sound scapes that would be interesting.
Though at
> > first I am afraid I will kiss quite a few walls!( grin)
>
> This blind user is a woman in her fourties, blinded in a chemical
> explosion about two decades ago. She has been using the auditory
> display for several months now, wearing a head-mounted camera and
> headphones, rather immersively that is. One could of course say
> here that interpretation involves auditory profile analysis with
> visual semantics, but what further insights does the huge body of
> auditory research give us here? Solid scientific data for use in
> this area seems largely lacking. Do you know of analogous examples
> (apart from speech) where prolonged exposure to new and complex
> auditory stimuli leads to sudden changes in (subjective) perception?
> I'd welcome any ideas, since we are breaking new ground with lots of
> unknowns, and I'm afraid we cannot pretend to know very much about it.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Peter Meijer
>
>
> Seeing with Sound - The vOICe
> http://www.seeingwithsound.com/voice.htm
>