ArticlePloS one2017
Blindness enhances auditory obstacle circumvention: Assessing echolocation, sensory substitution, and visual-based navigation.
Article in PloS one, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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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
29 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled 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
- Human click-based echolocation: Effects of blindness and age, and real-life implications in a 10-week training program.PloS one · 2021Trial
- 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
- Perceived sound localization abilities in blind individuals.PloS one · 2026Article
- Compression may be a general tendency of auditory distance judgments: evidence from distance estimates using a novel echolocation skill.Experimental brain research · 2025Article
- A direct comparison of sound and vibration as sources of stimulation for a sensory substitution glove.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2023Article
- 6-hour Training in click-based echolocation changes practice in visual impairment professionals.Frontiers in rehabilitation sciences · 2023Article
- Partial visual loss disrupts the relationship between judged room size and sound source distance.Experimental brain research · 2022Article
- Acute unilateral vestibular neuritis contributes to alterations in vestibular function modulating circumvention around obstacles: A pilot study suggesting a role for vestibular signals in the spatial perception of orientation during circumvention.Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · 2022Article
- No effect of 10-week training in click-based echolocation on auditory localization in people who are blind.Experimental brain research · 2021Article
- Analysis and Validation of Cross-Modal Generative Adversarial Network for Sensory Substitution.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Backward spatial perception can be augmented through a novel visual-to-auditory sensory substitution algorithm.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Spatial navigation with horizontally spatialized sounds in early and late blind individuals.PloS one · 2021Article
- A self-training program for sensory substitution devices.PloS one · 2021Article
- Discrimination of 2D wall textures by passive echolocation for different reflected-to-direct level difference configurations.PloS one · 2021Article
- Article
- Neural Networks Mediating Perceptual Learning in Congenital Blindness.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- The flexible action system: Click-based echolocation may replace certain visual functionality for adaptive walking.Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance · 2020Article
- Spatial Competence and Brain Plasticity in Congenital Blindness via Sensory Substitution Devices.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Performance for an obstacle circumvention task was assessed under conditions of visual, auditory only (using echolocation) and tactile (using a sensory substitution device, SSD) guidance. A Vicon motion capture system was used to measure human movement kinematics objectively. Ten normally sighted participants, 8 blind non-echolocators, and 1 blind expert echolocator navigated around a 0.6 x 2 m obstacle that was varied in position across trials, at the midline of the participant or 25 cm to the right or left. Although visual guidance was the most effective, participants successfully circumvented the obstacle in the majority of trials under auditory or SSD guidance. Using audition, blind non-echolocators navigated more effectively than blindfolded sighted individuals with fewer collisions, lower movement times, fewer velocity corrections and greater obstacle detection ranges. The blind expert echolocator displayed performance similar to or better than that for the other groups using audition, but was comparable to that for the other groups using the SSD. The generally better performance of blind than of sighted participants is consistent with the perceptual enhancement hypothesis that individuals with severe visual deficits develop improved auditory abilities to compensate for visual loss, here shown by faster, more fluid, and more accurate navigation around obstacles using sound.
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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.