DEBATE: Blind is better?

[Wah]

OKay - one short quick question.

Do blind people have better hearing? Do they rely more on it so they adapt better or is that just a load of nonsense?

PS: 100% opinion on this one - no facts, figures or........tests.

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[Aelia Jusa]

Hearing doesn't actually improve per se, it's just that sight is completely dominant over all other sensory modalities. If you see something but feel it differently, you'll believe what you see even if it is wrong. So I think it's just when you don't have sight anymore, you rely on hearing etc more, but you're not actually better at it. Here's something interesting though, if you lose a limb, after a couple of years the neurons in the brain that were responsible for the sensory and motor functions of that area are re-specialised to other areas. Also, it depends where your sight is lost. If you've got a problem with your eyes, then the area of the brain responsible for vision is still active so it might get respecialised, but if that brain area is damaged, resulting in loss of sight because visual information isn't processed, then of course those neurons are dead so can't be respecialised.

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Goddess of Undress
Co-owner of the Evil Petting Zoo and Sorceress of the HADB
OLD COOTS eye candy and Disrobed Division of the ORT
And her sidekick Pink

[Hiram Sedai]

Originally posted by Wah: OKay - one short quick question. Do blind people have better hearing? Do they rely more on it so they adapt better or is that just a load of nonsense? PS: 100% opinion on this one - no facts, figures or........tests.

Good thing you are just asking for opinions, because I don't have any facts. I would imagine that a blind person would have better concentration upon hearing because they are limited to 4 senses where we "sighted people" use sight primarily. So, the ability to hear would be the same, but the concentration level would be much better because it is their primary source of information gathering.



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[Yorick]

Originally posted by Aelia Jusa: Hearing doesn't actually improve per se, it's just that sight is completely dominant over all other sensory modalities.

Not true Aelia. Yes sight can be a dominant sense - one can see cause and effect - but hearing is a skill that definitely gets better with focus, practice and time. Hearing is after all the brains ability to transfer soundwaves into meanful, patterned "sounds". There are people whose related organs get damaged or worn, yet their ability to hear, to listen, to differentiate sounds increases.

Perfect pitch is a skill not a gift. Violinists are more likely to have perfect pitch than say a drummer who is less reliant on the slightest differentiation. Similarly a violinist will not always hear the subtle shift in beats a drummer does. Alternately a sound engineer will be able to isolate and identify bothersome frequencies (as opposed to notes) that others miss.

Of course, different people are gifted with a predisposition toward the hearing skill.

I'm talking about my own experience in the increase in my own hearing (despite tinnitus), and that of countless students and other musicians I've worked with who, after time, end up hearing things unheard before.

That said, there are many times when I will shut my eyes to remove visual distraction to aid in hearing particular nuances.

The beauty of the ear over the eye is that one can hear something often well before it is seen. Through barriers and is not reliant on light.

You are correct that many have sight as a dominant sense. Rectifying this unequal weighting is the first step in learning to sing. Learning to rely on ones hearing and feeling.

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[Yorick]

Originally posted by Wah: Do blind people have better hearing? Do they rely more on it so they adapt better or is that just a load of nonsense?

I would say yes.

A blind person who is also a musician would have extraordinary hearing.


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[Aelia Jusa]

Originally posted by Yorick: Not true Aelia. Yes sight can be a dominant sense - one can see cause and effect - but hearing is a skill that definitely gets better with focus, practice and time. Hearing is after all the brains ability to transfer soundwaves into meanful, patterned "sounds". There are people whose related organs get damaged or worn, yet their ability to hear, to listen, to differentiate sounds increases. Perfect pitch is a skill not a gift. Violinists are more likely to have perfect pitch than say a drummer who is less reliant on the slightest differentiation. Similarly a violinist will not always hear the subtle shift in beats a drummer does. Alternately a sound engineer will be able to isolate and identify bothersome frequencies (as opposed to notes) that others miss. Of course, different people are gifted with a predisposition toward the hearing skill. I'm talking about my own experience in the increase in my own hearing (despite tinnitus), and that of countless students and other musicians I've worked with who, after time, end up hearing things unheard before. That said, there are many times when I will shut my eyes to remove visual distraction to aid in hearing particular nuances. The beauty of the ear over the eye is that one can hear something often well before it is seen. Through barriers and is not reliant on light. You are correct that many have sight as a dominant sense. Rectifying this unequal weighting is the first step in learning to sing. Learning to rely on ones hearing and feeling.

Nowhere here have you shown that sight is not the dominant sense. You say hearing can improve, yes true, and that one can learn perfect pitch, fine. This type of learning occurs with other sensory modalities as well, for example the violinist would have superior skill in fine motor tasks than some people, with a corresponding increase in that area of the brain that controls hand movement. But then you say you have to shut your eyes to truly hear something, surely evidence that your sight would interfere with hearing, thus if you were seeing, sight would dominate your other senses.

Also I'm not sure why you think that because hearing is transforming sound waves into meaningful sounds is different and superior to the retina transforming light energy into meaningful visual information; it's all just transduction of one type of energy into another so the brain can interpret and process it.

Then you say that the beauty of the ear is that it can hear things before the eye can see them without dependence on light. But barriers etc can just as easily distort audio information as visual information.

The fact is that sight is the dominant sense, and many studies have shown this to be the case. For example, a 3D object was put in a special box which distorted it's shape to people looking at it, and subjects were asked to look at the object through the box while feeling it with their hands. Despite feeling the object accurately, the subjects reported the shape to be as they saw it, yet if they felt the object blind they reported it to be as it really was. Yes, perhaps you can improve your hearing but not to the extent that it is dominant over your sight.

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Goddess of Undress
Co-owner of the Evil Petting Zoo and Sorceress of the HADB
OLD COOTS eye candy and Disrobed Division of the ORT
And her sidekick Pink

[John D Harris]

Yes, the range of sounds may not be more, but if the concentration on the sounds is greater then the hearing is better. If more brain cells are dedicated to hearing then the hearing is better. They have allocated more RAM to hearing and have one less program running for their brain to multi-task.

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[Neb]

From what I've heard, I would have to say the blind people DO have better hearing, for example, some blind people can recognize others merely by the way their footsteps sound, can any of YOU do that? I sure as hell can't.

[Mitro Jellywadder]

In my opinion. Yes. The blind rely on their sense of hearing
and touch primarily. I can only assume that this would benefit
their hearing. Not so much improving it, but more tuned in to
what they hear. They might hear things that we would take for
granted. The birds a ways away, a kid laughing two blocks
away, etc. Things we might hear, but not really hear.

[Aelia Jusa]

Originally posted by John D Harris: Yes, the range of sounds may not be more, but if the concentration on the sounds is greater then the hearing is better. If more brain cells are dedicated to hearing then the hearing is better. They have allocated more RAM to hearing and have one less program running for their brain to multi-task.

But there may not be more brain cells dedicated to hearing. The visual processing and interpretation cortex is situated in a completely different area of the brain to the audio processing area, and I don't know of any evidence that shows that neurons in the visual cortex are respecialised for audio or any other sensory processing after you lose your sight. And if sight is lost due to a problem in the brain, rather than the eye, like in the primary or association visual area, then obviously the neurons will not be used because they're damaged. Also, the brain uses parallel processing which does not improve with less tasks.

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Goddess of Undress
Co-owner of the Evil Petting Zoo and Sorceress of the HADB
OLD COOTS eye candy and Disrobed Division of the ORT
And her sidekick Pink