The Brain of a Blind Person Sees More Than We Realize, Not Just Poetry

Human babies and even animals have a basic number sense that many believe evolves from seeing the world and trying to quantify all the sights. But vision has nothing to do with it -- Johns Hopkins University neuroscientists have found that the brain network behind numerical reasoning is identical in blind and sighted people.

The researchers also found the visual cortex in blind people is highly involved in doing math, suggesting the brain is vastly more adaptable than previously believed. The findings are published online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Science Daily:  Math study shows our brains are far more adaptable than we know

Credit: Image courtesy of Johns Hopkins University

Trying to strike the pose of the neuroscientist serves no useful purpose so here are the comments from the scientists:

Although it had been thought that brain regions including the visual cortex had entrenched functions that could change slightly but not fundamentally, these findings underscore recent research that showed just the opposite: The visual cortex is extremely plastic and, when it isn't processing sight, can respond to everything from spoken language to math problems.

There is no proclamation of a gay sci-fi future since the research goes far beyond what even the neuroscientists thought they would discover and they become almost festive in describing it.

"If we can make the visual cortex do math," Bedny said, "in principle we can make any part of the brain do anything."

If you have not previously seen a scientist ready to kick up his or her heels in joy, this is it.

As it stands, we're not even entirely sure what the brain's functions are and yet these scientists have gone out to find the brain doesn't seem to have fixed functions at its deepest levels.  For whatever the observed purpose, the brain can apparently use that same part of itself for another purpose.

Carry this one where you will, Doctor Frankenstein, since this subject looks wide open.