Mirror reversal by blind subjects in cutaneous perception and motor production of letters and numbers.
A letter drawn on the forehead is often perceived as its mirror reversal. Similarly, people produce mirror reversals when asked to write a letter on the underside of a table at which they are sitting. We varied the orientation and position of the stimulated or inscribed surface, and found several examples of these two mirror-reversal phenomena in blind subjects (who had no, or very little, visual experience), as well as in sighted subjects. Furthermore, the mirror-reversal rate of the two groups of subjects as a function of orientation and position of the surface was highly correlated. Thus, the mirror-reversal phenomena should be attributed to a nonvisual, spatial cognitive scheme that is perhaps shared by sighted and blind subjects.
Shimojo
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Sasaki
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Parsons
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LM
Torii
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D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D001766:Blindness / Q000523:psychology*; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D014110:Touch