Ubiquitous enhancement of spatial hearing in congenitally blind people

Battal, Ceren;Occelli, Valeria;Bertonati, Giorgia;Falagiarda, Federica;Collignon, Olivier
(2020) Psychological Science — (2020)

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Abstract
Vision is thought to scaffold the development of spatial abilities in the other senses.How does spatial hearing therefore develop in people lacking visual experience?We comprehensively addressed this question by investigating auditory localization abilities in congenitally blind and sighted individuals using a psychophysical minimum audible angle task exempt of sensori-motor confounds. Participants were asked to compare the relative position of two sound sources located in central and peripheral, horizontal and vertical, frontal and rear spaces. We observed unequivocal enhancement of spatial hearing abilities in congenitally blind people, irrespective of the field of space that is assessed. Our results are conclusive in demonstrating that visual experience is not a mandatory prerequisite for developing optimal spatial hearing abilities and that, in striking contrast, the lack of vision leads to ubiquitous enhancement of auditory spatial skills.
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Battal, C., Occelli, V., Bertonati, G., Falagiarda, F., & Collignon, O. (2020). Ubiquitous enhancement of spatial hearing in congenitally blind people. Psychological Science. Accepted/in-press. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/122618 (Original work published 2020)