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Asked by sammieblues to David, Luna, Mark, Melanie, Probash on 22 Mar 2011 in Categories: General. This question was also asked by avengedsevenfold, charlie13.
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Melanie Stefan answered on 21 Mar 2011:
I am not sure. The neurons in the visual centers of the brain will probably be there at birth, but since they are not being used, I think that that part of the brain gets taken over by other senses (like hearing).
But I know that colourblind people have the facility in their brain to see the colours that they don’t usually see in nature, so the brain definitely has some visual faculties that are independent of what we see in the outside world.
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Luna Munoz answered on 21 Mar 2011:
Sammie, people who are blind from birth or even blind before the age of 4 years cannot see visions in dreams. Some researchers argue that seeing sights in dreams is something that develops over time for children.
There is research to show that people who are blind from birth re-organize their brain. While the people who can see process the edges and locations of objects with the back part of the brain from information provided by the eyes, the people blind from birth process this information in this part of the brain too, but using information from touch and sound. Of course, they also still use the areas of the brain usually reserved for sound and touch, but they take advantage of the vision area for doing complex processing of objects in their environment. Makes sense, given what I said about the brain being such a powerful organ!
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Probash Chowdhury answered on 22 Mar 2011:
Interesting question, but not one I can answer – one for Luna or Melanie I think.
Comments
sammieblues commented on :
Oooh iv found dave’s weakness 😀
elhermano commented on :
you already asked this question on the live chat thing sam. although i spose you put it before you knew about the chat thing.
Luna commented on :
It’s true that it was asked, but using ASK does give a chance for scientists who were not part of the chat to answer as well.