title: Blindness enhances tactile acuity and haptic 3-D shape discrimination.
abstract: This study compared the sensory and perceptual abilities of the blind and sighted. The 32 participants were required to perform two tasks: tactile grating orientation discrimination (to determine tactile acuity) and haptic three-dimensional (3-D) shape discrimination. The results indicated that the blind outperformed their sighted counterparts (individually matched for both age and sex) on both tactile tasks. The improvements in tactile acuity that accompanied blindness occurred for all blind groups (congenital, early, and late). However, the improvements in haptic 3-D shape discrimination only occurred for the early-onset and late-onset blindness groups; the performance of the congenitally blind was no better than that of the sighted controls. The results of the present study demonstrate that blindness does lead to an enhancement of tactile abilities, but they also suggest that early visual experience may play a role in facilitating haptic 3-D shape discrimination.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Western Kentucky University, 1906 College Heights Blvd. #21030, Bowling Green, KY 42101-1030, USA. Farley.Norman@wku.edu
authors.forename: J Farley
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Norman
authors.forename: Ashley N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Bartholomew
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001076:Aptitude; D001766:Blindness / Q000151:congenital / Q000523:psychology*; D003867:Depth Perception; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009949:Orientation; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012684:Sensory Thresholds; D013236:Stereognosis; D014110:Touch; D014796:Visual Perception