Comments on: The brain on sonar – how blind people find their way around with echoes

By: Patricia

Patricia — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:03:20 +0000

Hello. I am partially sighted and well, I do some really weird things like, for example, I can tell when a non-clear bottle of something like a liquid is empty just by shaking it and in the Summer, I can hear buzzing of insects in hedges that no-one else can hear and my husband just does not understand how I do it and neither do I; for me it is a form of second vision, is there anyone else out there who is like me? I think I am compensating for my lack of sight but I would love to know what people think like me, or are partially sighted or blind who perhaps who have had the same experience…thank you very much..

By: Jacob

Jacob — Fri, 27 May 2011 13:08:26 +0000

Thing is, some other blind people are annoyed when they are portrayed as having a disability at all. It really is impossible to please everyone.

While echolocation is an extraordinary ability for a human, it’s not a superpowered one. I don’t think that a significant amount of people are going to hear about this and think, “Wow, I bet those people are even better than sighted people at navigating!”

By: Ed Yong

Ed Yong — Thu, 26 May 2011 23:08:38 +0000

There’s a really good old piece in Slate on this by the excellent Daniel Engber http://www.slate.com/id/2154696/ On page 2, Daniel raises the interesting point that some blind people don’t like the media coverage of human sonar because (a) it portrays blind people as Daredevil-style superheroes with extraordinary abilities rather than normal people with a proper disability, and (b) they’d probably be safer using a cane. I think Kish would argue that training people to use sonar is empowering.

By: QoB

QoB — Thu, 26 May 2011 10:16:35 +0000

Neuroplasticity is awesome. There has also been a lot of work done on sound scapes and use of vibration for ‘visual’ sensing e.g.: BrainGate.

By: Adrian Morgan

Adrian Morgan — Thu, 26 May 2011 06:54:24 +0000

I first heard about human echolocation from this June 2009 article: http://www.physorg.com/news165568028.html – it’s a fascinating subject.

By: Bradley Voytek

Bradley Voytek — Thu, 26 May 2011 01:59:42 +0000

Just wrote about this last week! (Well partly, anyway.)
http://www.boingboing.net/2011/05/18/super-senses-exist-w.html

Really incredible abilities these folks have. I’m glad to see some neuroscientific research looking into it.

By: KateClancy

KateClancy — Wed, 25 May 2011 21:47:22 +0000

Shameless familial plug here: my sister and father are almost done making a film about beep ball, which is blind baseball. The bases and the balls make noise, but I wonder if any of the players also echolocate? I’ll pass on your post to them, I bet the folks on the team would get a kick out of it. Thanks for writing this, Ed!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDxV0WkydbA