ArticleExperimental brain research2017
Auditory spatial representations of the world are compressed in blind humans.
Article in Experimental brain research, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
18 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
- The Cross-Modal Effects of Sensory Deprivation on Spatial and Temporal Processes in Vision and Audition: A Systematic Review on Behavioral and Neuroimaging Research since 2000.Neural plasticity · 2019Pooled it
- The accuracy of auditory spatial judgments in the visually impaired is dependent on sound source distance.Scientific reports · 2020Trial
- Evaluation of Functional Impacts of Vision Impairment: Progress, Challenges and Future Directions.Ophthalmic & physiological optics : the journal of the British College of Ophthalmic Opticians (Optometrists) · 2026Review
- Compression may be a general tendency of auditory distance judgments: evidence from distance estimates using a novel echolocation skill.Experimental brain research · 2025Article
- Article
- Investigating the impact of the years of blindness on sleep rhythms, dream patterns, and spatial abilities: The BLINDREAM protocol.PloS one · 2025Article
- Comparison of peripersonal space in front and rear spaces.Experimental brain research · 2024Article
- Multisensory training improves the development of spatial cognition after sight restoration from congenital cataracts.iScience · 2024Article
- Partial visual loss disrupts the relationship between judged room size and sound source distance.Experimental brain research · 2022Article
- fNIRS Assessment of Speech Comprehension in Children with Normal Hearing and Children with Hearing Aids in Virtual Acoustic Environments: Pilot Data and Practical Recommendations.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
- Temporal cues trick the visual and auditory cortices mimicking spatial cues in blind individuals.Human brain mapping · 2020Article
- The Role of Visual Experience in Auditory Space Perception around the Legs.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Partial Visual Loss Affects Self-reports of Hearing Abilities Measured Using a Modified Version of the Speech, Spatial, and Qualities of Hearing Questionnaire.Frontiers in psychology · 2017Article
- Blindness enhances auditory obstacle circumvention: Assessing echolocation, sensory substitution, and visual-based navigation.PloS one · 2017Article
- Intercepting a sound without vision.PloS one · 2017Article
- Audio Motor Training at the Foot Level Improves Space Representation.Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · 2017Article
- Auditory Spatial Bisection of Blind and Normally Sighted Individuals in Free Field and Virtual Acoustics.Trends in hearingArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Compared to sighted listeners, blind listeners often display enhanced auditory spatial abilities such as localization in azimuth. However, less is known about whether blind humans can accurately judge distance in extrapersonal space using auditory cues alone. Using virtualization techniques, we show that auditory spatial representations of the world beyond the peripersonal space of blind listeners are compressed compared to those for normally sighted controls. Blind participants overestimated the distance to nearby sources and underestimated the distance to remote sound sources, in both reverberant and anechoic environments, and for speech, music, and noise signals. Functions relating judged and actual virtual distance were well fitted by compressive power functions, indicating that the absence of visual information regarding the distance of sound sources may prevent accurate calibration of the distance information provided by auditory signals.
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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.