Israel Gives Sight to the Blind
Sensory Substitution Devices (SSD’s) have been used to help people who are born blind visualize their surroundings using other senses. But Israeli PhD student Ella Streim-Amit, who studies with Dr. Amir Amedi at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, wanted to try something new with this technology.
Studies have shown that sight is processed in the brain through two pathways: the ventral, or “what,” pathway identifies color, form, and object identity, while the dorsal, or “where/how,” pathway analyzes visual and spatial information. Streim-Amit hypothesized that eyesight was not essential to activate these brain pathways.
Using fMRI technology, Streim-Amit analyzed how SSD’s affected the users’ brains. She found that the two visual pathways were activated when, for instance, a blind person uses a special cane which transmits spatial information through vibrations, thus allowing the person to “see” his surroundings.
Indeed, as Streim-Amit had suspected, the system could be activated without eyesight.
Amedi and his team study the brain as a task machine. “The brain is not a sensory machine, although it often looks like one,” said Amedi. “It is a task machine.” From this perspective, the brain is able to find ways to carry out tasks, such as sight, even it is not receiving the visual information the usual way.
“The exciting view of our brain as highly flexible task-based and not sensory-based raises the chances for visual rehabilitation, long considered unachievable, given adequate training in teaching the brain how to see,” summarized Amedi’s students Lior Reich and Shachar Maidenbaum in Current Opinion in Neurology.
This achievement opens up whole new worlds in the realm of sight science. In the future, the conclusions of these Israeli researchers could pave the way for new methods of sight rehabilitation for people recovering from surgery, or even people who could not see naturally in the first place.
What new Israeli technology gets you excited?
Studies have shown that sight is processed in the brain through two pathways: the ventral, or “what,” pathway identifies color, form, and object identity, while the dorsal, or “where/how,” pathway analyzes visual and spatial information. Streim-Amit hypothesized that eyesight was not essential to activate these brain pathways.
Using fMRI technology, Streim-Amit analyzed how SSD’s affected the users’ brains. She found that the two visual pathways were activated when, for instance, a blind person uses a special cane which transmits spatial information through vibrations, thus allowing the person to “see” his surroundings.
Indeed, as Streim-Amit had suspected, the system could be activated without eyesight.
Amedi and his team study the brain as a task machine. “The brain is not a sensory machine, although it often looks like one,” said Amedi. “It is a task machine.” From this perspective, the brain is able to find ways to carry out tasks, such as sight, even it is not receiving the visual information the usual way.
“The exciting view of our brain as highly flexible task-based and not sensory-based raises the chances for visual rehabilitation, long considered unachievable, given adequate training in teaching the brain how to see,” summarized Amedi’s students Lior Reich and Shachar Maidenbaum in Current Opinion in Neurology.
This achievement opens up whole new worlds in the realm of sight science. In the future, the conclusions of these Israeli researchers could pave the way for new methods of sight rehabilitation for people recovering from surgery, or even people who could not see naturally in the first place.
What new Israeli technology gets you excited?