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Brain origins of ‘blindsight’ revealed

The spooky phenomenon that allows some blind people to navigate around objects has been pinned down to connections in the thalamus
[video_player id=�EsTgHOI6″]Video: Blind man avoids obstacles

SOME blind people have the remarkable ability to navigate physical obstacles without consciously perceiving them (see video, above). It now looks like they have their (LGN) – part of the thalamus in the middle of the brain – to thank for this “blindsight�.

That’s according to a team at the US National Institute of Mental 91É«Ç鯬 in Bethesda, Maryland. They used macaques in which parts of the primary visual cortex had been destroyed.

The monkeys’ eye-focusing movements, coupled with scans of brain activity, revealed that they were “seeing� images shown in the “blind� part of their visual field, but only if their LGN was intact (Nature, ).

Topics: Brains / Psychology