Skip to main content
I found this article through an interest in the “what do the blind “see” when they dream” question, as it was formulated by Eliezer Sternberg. I was originally skeptical about the idea that the blind have a completely non-visual interpretation of an isotropic model of space. I decided the synesthetic hallucinations induced by classical tryptamine hallucinogens might could provide interesting evidence as to how the blind experience internal models of space. I queried “congenitally blind” and “tryptamines" and found a number of reposted iterations of the following article.  
They all referenced, in one way or another, the case study linked below that can be accessed via the proper credentials or by paying a fee.

In short a congenitally blind Russian rock musician, who chose to self identify as Mr. Blue Pentagon for the purposes of the study, described a number of his experiences after having imbibed (what is presumed to have been) lysergic acid diethylamide 25 (more commonly known as LSD). He described experiences of synesthesia induced by recorded music. Specifically, he described the experience of listening to a Bach piece as having qualities typical of multimodal perception, such as “height” or depth or as if he was being “showered” by or immersed in sounds.

One could hypothesize, based on the above, that the “cross chatter” seen on fMRI between brain regions in individuals who have consumed tryptamines has a similar effect on the spatial perception that the visual cortex has accommodated to process in the congenitally blind.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Negative Afterimage

Reber Shukri Professor Vaughn Negative afterimage is a stimulus which elicits a positive image. In order to experience this, one can look at a bright source of light and then look away to a dark area. The way negative afterimage works is when the eye's photo-receptors which are the rods and cones adapt to over stimulation and lose sensitivity. The photo-receptors which are constantly exposed to the same stimulus will fatigue their supply of photo pigment, resulting a decrease in signal to the brain. The way negative afterimage connects to perception is because of bottom up processing where the stimulus influences what we perceive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szy8iNCljlQ <Link to the video

Illusions that Confuse Multiple Senses

In this video, several illusions are shown that deceive your senses. Illusions such as the Zöllner Illusion and the Poggendorff illusion confuse our bottom up processing by tricking our vision. However, our vision isn't the only sense that these illusions can confuse, blind individuals presented with raised versions of the same illusions are also confused by them. These illusions effect the visual and touch systems by confusing our bottom up processing by tricking out sight and touch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je1mkzRU5rc&t=64s

How Your Expectations Mess With The View of The Present

In this video the waiters and waitresses give the customers a water menu with fancy different names. They then taste the differently packaged water. Since they were convinced that they were actually different types of water, they were comparing them and actually tasted a difference. The reasoning behind this is, since they were told that they were different, they believed what they were told. They perceived what they expected it to be. This is is an example of how your expectations mess with your view of the present. Therefore, they tasted the water to be different but in reality it was tap water the whole time in different bottles.