Trial reportPloS one2015
Navigation using sensory substitution in real and virtual mazes.
Trial report in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 46 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
46 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Neural substrates of spatial processing and navigation in blindness: An activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Pooled it
- Low vision rehabilitation for better quality of life in visually impaired adults.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2020Pooled it
- Re-imagining sensory substitution through gestural control: Point-To-Tell 2.Disability and rehabilitation. Assistive technology · 2026Article
- Differential Performance of Children and Adults in a Vision-Deprived Maze Spatial Navigation Task and Exploration of the Impact of tDCS over the Right Posterior Parietal Cortex on Performance in Adults.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Paving the way for social touch at a distance: Sonifying tactile interactions and their underlying emotions.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Auditory and tactile frequency mapping for visual distance perception: A step forward in sensory substitution and augmentation.PloS one · 2025Article
- Perceptual learning and neural correlates of virtual navigation in subjective cognitive decline: A pilot study.iScience · 2024Article
- Sensory augmentation for a rapid motor task in a multisensory environment.Restorative neurology and neuroscience · 2024Article
- Article
- Towards sensory substitution and augmentation: Mapping visual distance to audio and tactile frequency.PloS one · 2024Article
- Learning and navigating digitally rendered haptic spatial layouts.NPJ science of learning · 2023Article
- A direct comparison of sound and vibration as sources of stimulation for a sensory substitution glove.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2023Article
- Improved Spatial Knowledge Acquisition through Sensory Augmentation.Brain sciences · 2023Article
- Spatial Knowledge via Auditory Information for Blind Individuals: Spatial Cognition Studies and the Use of Audio-VR.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- The MAPS: Toward a Novel Mobility Assistance System for Visually Impaired People.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Effects of training and using an audio-tactile sensory substitution device on speech-in-noise understanding.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Gyrification in relation to cortical thickness in the congenitally blind.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Article
- The Topo-Speech sensory substitution system as a method of conveying spatial information to the blind and vision impaired.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2022Article
- Training-induced plasticity enables visualizing sounds with a visual-to-auditory conversion device.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Backward spatial perception can be augmented through a novel visual-to-auditory sensory substitution algorithm.Scientific reports · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Under certain specific conditions people who are blind have a perception of space that is equivalent to that of sighted individuals. However, in most cases their spatial perception is impaired. Is this simply due to their current lack of access to visual information or does the lack of visual information throughout development prevent the proper integration of the neural systems underlying spatial cognition? Sensory Substitution devices (SSDs) can transfer visual information via other senses and provide a unique tool to examine this question. We hypothesize that the use of our SSD (The EyeCane: a device that translates distance information into sounds and vibrations) can enable blind people to attain a similar performance level as the sighted in a spatial navigation task. We gave fifty-six participants training with the EyeCane. They navigated in real life-size mazes using the EyeCane SSD and in virtual renditions of the same mazes using a virtual-EyeCane. The participants were divided into four groups according to visual experience: congenitally blind, low vision & late blind, blindfolded sighted and sighted visual controls. We found that with the EyeCane participants made fewer errors in the maze, had fewer collisions, and completed the maze in less time on the last session compared to the first. By the third session, participants improved to the point where individual trials were no longer significantly different from the initial performance of the sighted visual group in terms of errors, time and collision.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.