title: Auditory and proprioceptive spatial impairments in blind children and adults.
abstract: It is not clear what role visual information plays in the development of space perception. It has previously been shown that in absence of vision, both the ability to judge orientation in the haptic modality and bisect intervals in the auditory modality are severely compromised (Gori, Sandini, Martinoli & Burr, 2010; Gori, Sandini, Martinoli & Burr, 2014). Here we report for the first time also a strong deficit in proprioceptive reproduction and audio distance evaluation in early blind children and adults. Interestingly, the deficit is not present in a small group of adults with acquired visual disability. Our results support the idea that in absence of vision the audio and proprioceptive spatial representations may be delayed or drastically weakened due to the lack of visual calibration over the auditory and haptic modalities during the critical period of development.
authors.affiliation: Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genoa, Italy.
authors.forename: Giulia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cappagli
authors.affiliation: Istituto David Chiossone Onlus, Genoa, Italy.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cocchi
authors.affiliation: Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genoa, Italy.
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gori
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001307:Auditory Perception; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D009949:Orientation; D012683:Sensory Deprivation; D013028:Space Perception; D019987:Persons with Visual Disabilities