Abstract:
It was as if the idea of the mind cracked open. The fMRI machine whirred and felt cold to the touch as those in the study were only sensitive to these senses, but could not use their sight. Dr. Laurent Renier, specializing in visual impairments at Georgetown University Medical Center, put together a study observing how the blind used their occipital cortex, and area known to be involved in visual processing in seeing people (Renier et al, 2011). After performing tasks under an fMRI machine for audition and tactile sensation, the researchers found that the results of the study supported their hypothesis that the occipital cortex actually reorients itself to support those senses even more than those with sight. On the other hand, subjects with the ability to see were used to compare activated brain regions to the blind subjects.
Although fMRI was used in this study to compare how the visual cortex functioned differently for blind people, it was designed on the principle that all brains function in an extremely similar way. Processing brain data involves mapping the brains of the subjects onto the same template and smoothing over activated voxels to erase even more dissimilarities between brains (Glover, 2011). As we learn more about how brains are different, we must avoid an understanding of the normal brain to dictate ideas about other brains. A normal brain seems to be “an average in a population, a typical member, an ideal type,” but this idea of normal is deeply rooted in society and subjective (Dumit 8). Understanding more about what blindness actually is and the different types of blindness means reframing definitions of disability, especially since “much lies beyond human sight” (Godin 29). A deeper study of blindness can interact with history, culture, and personal stories to reinterpret how to envision every unique mind.
Description:
I made a video for my final project. I overlapped fMRI studies for blind people, depressed people, sociopaths, geniuses, and criminals, and compared them to normal brains. I did away with these assumptions and categorizations made by fMRI studies by representing each group as a cantaloupe and making blending them together as one group to show the quality of each human brain. My video is linked below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-6K6m1-tFY
References:
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