title: Why Cyclops could not compete with Ulysses: monocular vision and mental images.
abstract: The present research demonstrates that the limitations of congenitally blind people in tasks requiring the processing of mental images are specifically related to the absence of binocular vision and not to the absence of vision per se. We contrasted three different groups of participants: sighted; visually impaired, with reduced binocular vision; monocular, with a normal visual acuity although in one eye only. Visually impaired participants (i.e. blurred vision) show a pattern of performance comparable to that of the sighted. In contrast, monocular participants show a similar pattern of performance to congenitally blind individuals despite being able to see perfectly well. These results shed new light on the relationship between perception and imagery and on the characteristics of sequential and simultaneous processes in the human brain.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Pavia, Italy. vecchi@unipv.it
authors.forename: Tomaso
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Vecchi
authors.forename: Zaira
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cattaneo
authors.forename: Maura
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Monegato
authors.forename: Alfredo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pece
authors.forename: Cesare
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cornoldi
authors.forename: Pietro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pietrini
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology*; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015348:Vision, Binocular; D015349:Vision, Monocular / Q000502:physiology*; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000502:physiology