Symposium: Can the Blind See?
Multiple Paper Presentation

Alvaro Pascual-Leone
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School

     Abstract ID Number: 5

Symposium Overview
Monet wished he had been born blind, because he believed that it would have enhanced his artistic perception of the world. Picasso stated that painting was a blind man’s profession, as blind people have a clearer vision of reality. Dramatic plastic changes take place in the brain following loss of sight, which contribute to the adaptation to blindness and result in behavioral advantages for the blind. However, does the recruitment of visual cortex for tactile and auditory processing imply that blind people can see? Do the ‘qualia’ evoked by touch or sound become visual? What does this imply for rehabilitation of the blind and restoration of vision? What does this teach us about the fundamental organization of the human brain and the perception of reality? These questions will be addressed from the perspective of visual sensory substitution, neurorehabiltiation in the blind, and restoration of sight through neuroprostheses.

Papers in this Symposium:

• Paul Bach-y-Rita
  Departments of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation Medicine and B
  Kathi Kamm
  Department of Occupational Therapy, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
  Tactile Sensory Substitution for Blindness
• Amir Amedi
  Harvard Center for Non-Invasive Magnetic Brain Stimulation,
  Peter Meijer
  Philips Research, Eindhoven, Netherlands
  Neural correlates of visual-to-auditory sensory substitution in proficient blind users.
• Claude Veraart
  Neural Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory, Universite de
  Anne De Volder
  Neural Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory, Universite de Louvain
  Jean Delbeke
  Neural Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory, Universite de Louvain
  Vision rehabilitation in case of blindness
• Lotfi Merabet
  Neurology and Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School
  Joseph Rizzo
  Neuro ophthalmology, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary
  Visual Neuroprosthesis Development: The Implications of Neuroplasticity