Making Sense of the Chemical Senses
Source: Volume 27, Issue 5-6, pp 399 - 419We review our recent behavioural and imaging studies testing the consequences of congenital blindness on the chemical senses in comparison with the condition of anosmia. We found that congenitally blind (CB) subjects have increased sensitivity for orthonasal odorants and recruit their visually deprived occipital cortex to process orthonasal olfactory stimuli. In sharp contrast, CB perform less well than sighted controls in taste and retronasal olfaction, i.e. when processing chemicals inside the mouth. Interestingly, CB do not recruit their occipital cortex to process taste stimuli...
Source: Multisensory research - November 11, 2014 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Léa Gagnon, Ron Kupers and Maurice Ptito Source Type: research
The Effect of Extended Sensory Range the EyeCane Sensory Substitution Device on the Characteristics of Visionless Virtual Navigation
Source: Volume 27, Issue 5-6, pp 379 - 397Mobility training programs for helping the blind navigate through unknown places with a White-Cane significantly improve their mobility. However, what is the effect of new assistive technologies, offering more information to the blind user, on the underlying premises of these programs such as navigation patterns?We developed the virtual-EyeCane, a minimalistic sensory substitution device translating single-point-distance into auditory cues identical to the EyeCane’s in the real world. We compared performance in virtual environments when using the virtual-EyeCane, a virtual-White-...
Source: Multisensory research - November 11, 2014 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Shachar Maidenbaum, Shelly Levy-Tzedek, Daniel Robert Chebat, Rinat Namer-Furstenberg and Amir Amedi Source Type: research
Touch-Screen Technology for the Dynamic Display of 2D Spatial Information Without Vision: Promise and Progress
Source: Volume 27, Issue 5-6, pp 359 - 378Many developers wish to capitalize on touch-screen technology for developing aids for the blind, particularly by incorporating vibrotactile stimulation to convey patterns on their surfaces, which otherwise are featureless. Our belief is that they will need to take into account basic research on haptic perception in designing these graphics interfaces. We point out constraints and limitations in haptic processing that affect the use of these devices. We also suggest ways to use sound to augment basic information from touch, and we include evaluation data from users of a touch-screen...
Source: Multisensory research - November 11, 2014 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Roberta L. Klatzky, Nicholas A. Giudice, Christopher R. Bennett and Jack M. Loomis Source Type: research
Visual Objects in the Auditory System in Sensory Substitution: How Much Information Do We Need?
Source: Volume 27, Issue 5-6, pp 337 - 357Sensory substitution devices such as The vOICe convert visual imagery into auditory soundscapes and can provide a basic ‘visual’ percept to those with visual impairment. However, it is not known whether technical or perceptual limits dominate the practical efficacy of such systems. By manipulating the resolution of sonified images and asking naïve sighted participants to identify visual objects through a six-alternative forced-choice procedure (6AFC) we demonstrate a ‘ceiling effect’ at 8 × 8 pixels, in both visual and tactile conditions, that is well below the theoretic...
Source: Multisensory research - November 11, 2014 Category: Neuroscience Authors: David J. Brown, Andrew J. R. Simpson and Michael J. Proulx Source Type: research
Sensory Substitution for Balance Control Using a Vestibular-to-Tactile Device
Source: Volume 27, Issue 5-6, pp 313 - 336Postural control is essential for most activities of daily living. The impairment of this function can be extremely disabling. This work was stimulated by the testimony of a bilateral partial foot amputee who describes his difficulty in maintaining balance while washing his hair in the shower. We postulated that if the postural control system could not rely on accurate and reliable somatosensory inputs from the foot and ankle, as is probably the case following bilateral foot amputation due to the loss of the foot afferents and efferents, the weight of visual and vestibular cues wou...
Source: Multisensory research - November 11, 2014 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Bruno Diot, Petra Halavackova, Jacques Demongeot and Nicolas Vuillerme Source Type: research
The Skin as a Medium for Sensory Substitution
Source: Volume 27, Issue 5-6, pp 293 - 312The last 50 years or so has seen great optimism concerning the potential of sensory substitution and augmentation devices to enhance the lives of those with (or even those without) some form of sensory loss (in practice, this has typically meant those who are blind or suffering from low vision). One commonly discussed solution for those individuals who are blind has been to use one of a range of tactile–visual sensory substitution systems that represent objects captured by a camera as outline images on the skin surface in real-time (what Loomis, Klatzky and Giudice, 2012, term ge...
Source: Multisensory research - November 11, 2014 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Charles Spence Source Type: research
Is There a Future for Sensory Substitution Outside Academic Laboratories?
Source: Volume 27, Issue 5-6, pp 271 - 291Sensory substitution devices (SSDs) have been developed with the ultimate purpose of supporting sensory deprived individuals in their daily activities. However, more than forty years after their first appearance in the scientific literature, SSDs still remain more common in research laboratories than in the daily life of people with sensory deprivation. Here, we seek to identify the reasons behind the limited diffusion of SSDs among the blind community by discussing the ergonomic, neurocognitive and psychosocial issues potentially associated with the use of these systems. We stress...
Source: Multisensory research - November 11, 2014 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Giulia V. Elli, Stefania Benetti and Olivier Collignon Source Type: research
The State of the Art of Sensory Substitution
Source: Volume 27, Issue 5-6, pp 265 - 269 (Source: Multisensory research)
Source: Multisensory research - November 11, 2014 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Malika Auvray and Laurence R. Harris Source Type: research
