User:JCW23528/sandbox

Blindness

Common Keypad with Braille

When a person has become blind, in order to “see” the world their other senses become heightened. An important sense for the blind is their sense of touch, which becomes more frequently used to help them perceive the world. People that are blind have displayed that their visual cortices become more responsive to auditory and tactile stimulation. Braille allows the blind to be able to use their sense of touch to feel the roughness, and distance of various patterns to be used as a form of language. Within the brain, the activation of the occipital cortex is functionally relevant for tactile braille reading, as well as the somatosensory cortex. These different parts of the brain function in their own way, they each contribute to the effectiveness of how braille is read by the blind. People that are blind rely heavily on their Tactile Gnosis, Spatial discrimination, Graphesthesia, and Two-point discrimination. Essentially, the occipital cortex allows one to effectively make judgements on the distance of the various braille patterns, which is described as spatial discrimination. Meanwhile, the somatosensory cortex allows one to effectively make judgements on the roughness of various braille patterns, which is described as two-point discrimination. In regard to blindness, these various visual areas in the brain are very essential for a blind person to read braille, just as much as a person that has sight. The visual cortices of blind individuals are active during various vision related tasks including tactile discrimination and the function of the cortices resemble the activity of adults with sight. Essentially, whether one is blind or not, the perception of objects that involves tactile discrimination is not impaired if one cannot see. When comparing people that are blind to people that have sight, the amount of activity within the their somatosensory and visual areas of the brain differ. For example, in people that are blind, the activity within the somatosensory and visual areas are highly active in regard to tactile gnosis. The difference for people that are not blind show that the activity in the somatosensory and visual areas are not as high for that type of tactile discrimination, and are more-so active for more visual related stimuli that does not involve touch. Nonetheless, there is a difference in these various areas within the brain when comparing the blind to the sighted, which is that shape discrimination causes a difference in brain activity.

About the Man Himself

Track is one of the things I like to participate in to clear my mind.

I am currently a Junior at Marquette University studying Physiological Sciences. I intend to become a Physical Therapist in the near future to continue to help people and make a positive impact on their lives. While being at Marquette I am apart of the Men's Track & Field team, where I run various races such as the 400m dash, and 200m dash. During the free time that I'm able to obtain, I enjoy playing video games, as well as playing the drums. An interesting fact about myself is that my middle name is just the letter C.