Brain Science Podcast discussion

Seeing with Sound

i'd love to see the original science articles on this

I agree with Christian. I followed this link and not only are no references listed, it doesn't even appear to be possible to read the whole article without logging in.

I would be skeptical without more documentation!

Not having read the article, and going only by the title of this thread, I can confirm that this happens to some degree.

Not only have I read before of blind people using 'sonar', I know a blind woman who does. She always wears hard-soled shoes; and her own home is floored with hard surfaces (tiles, hardwood, etc), in order for her to be able to perceive how far walls are.

I don't know how precise her abilities are (e.g whether or not she would be able to tell if, for instance, something the size of a suitcase were placed in her way (or elsewhere in the room).

She has told me that the skill is a common one among the blind, particularly those who've been blind since birth.

For those interested, I recommend doing a quick web search; I suspect you'll find plenty of material to read, though I can't say how well-studied the phenomenon is in scientific circles.