Subject: blindsight From: "Dennis P. Phillips, Ph.D." <ears(at)IS.DAL.CA> Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 10:10:52 -0400Re: auditory analogs of blindsight I would have thought that a description of this condition would be a person who verbally reports hearing nothing, but who nevertheless can be shown to orient appropriately to sounds, or who, in forced choice discriminations, performs above chance despite claiming not to hear the stimuli. Re: Tom Brennan's comments on blindsight Tom is almost certainly right that any such syndrome, if it exists, must be central in origin. I also agree with his approach of trying to tease out whether such a disorder has a strictly sensory/perceptual component (as opposed to linguistic or output components). What makes this difficult is the complexity and inter-connectedness of the perceptual and cognitive architectures supported by our brains. There are some fascinating case studies that provide insight into local regions of this processing, and some of these cases are reviewed in Phillips, D.P. (1995) Central auditory processing: A view from neuroscience. Am. J. Otol., 16: 338-352. I hope this helps. Cheers, Dennis PP ----------------------------------- Dennis P. Phillips, Ph.D. Hearing Research Laboratory Professor, Department of Psychology Dalhousie University Halifax, NS, Canada B3H 4J1 Phone: (902)494-2383 Fax: (902)494-6585 E-mail: ears(at)is.dal.ca -----------------------------------