據(jù)英國(guó)廣播公司報(bào)道,，日前,，加拿大科學(xué)家最新研究顯示，人類基于大腦特殊區(qū)域可像蝙蝠一樣觀看外界環(huán)境,。一些盲人通過(guò)敲打噪音和傾聽回聲,，像蝙蝠一樣憑回聲測(cè)定方向和位置。
加拿大科學(xué)家最新研究顯示,，人類基于大腦特殊區(qū)域可像蝙蝠一樣觀看外界環(huán)境,。
這項(xiàng)最新實(shí)驗(yàn)是對(duì)兩位盲人進(jìn)行分析研究，研究結(jié)果發(fā)表在《公共科學(xué)圖書館——綜合》期刊上,。顯示當(dāng)盲人傾聽回聲時(shí),，與視覺相關(guān)的大腦區(qū)域?qū)⒈患せ睢?/p>
蝙蝠和海豚通過(guò)周圍環(huán)境的反彈聲波及傾聽回聲，能夠“看清”周圍環(huán)境,。一些盲人也學(xué)會(huì)了該方法,，使他們的生活得到了很大的改善，能夠分辨城市道路并進(jìn)行一些體育活動(dòng),。目前,，加拿大研究人員對(duì)兩位盲人進(jìn)行了每天回聲定位能力測(cè)試，測(cè)試者EB今年43歲,，自出生后13個(gè)月便失明,；測(cè)試者LB今年27歲，自14歲便失明,。
在實(shí)驗(yàn)中,，研究人員記錄了他們的回聲測(cè)定方向能力，同時(shí),，麥克風(fēng)連接至測(cè)試者的耳朵上,。功能性磁振造影數(shù)據(jù)記錄了大腦的活動(dòng)性，結(jié)果他們發(fā)現(xiàn)大腦距狀皮層具有增強(qiáng)活動(dòng)性,。
加拿大西安大略大學(xué)洛雷-泰勒(Lore Thaler)博士稱,，這項(xiàng)研究表明視覺大腦區(qū)域?qū)τ诿と嘶芈暥ㄎ幌到y(tǒng)具有重要作用。雖然這項(xiàng)研究?jī)H對(duì)兩位盲人進(jìn)行了測(cè)試,，尚不能斷定所有人群都懂得使用回聲定位感知周圍環(huán)境,，但該研究表明，EB和LB測(cè)試者使用回聲定位的方法與視覺系統(tǒng)有著驚人相似之處,。
“失明者行動(dòng)”組織康復(fù)官員蘇西-羅伯茨(Susie Roberts)說(shuō)：“這項(xiàng)針對(duì)大腦活動(dòng)性和回聲定位的研究令人感到非常有趣,，有助于提高我們理解盲人如何處理視覺信息及實(shí)現(xiàn)安全導(dǎo)航。進(jìn)一步的深入研究將有助于提高失明群體的可移動(dòng)性和獨(dú)立生活能力,。”（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原文出處：
PLoS ONE DOI：10.1371/journal.pone.0020162
Neural Correlates of Natural Human Echolocation in Early and Late Blind Echolocation Experts
Lore Thaler, Stephen R. Arnott, Melvyn A. Goodale
Background
A small number of blind people are adept at echolocating silent objects simply by producing mouth clicks and listening to the returning echoes. Yet the neural architecture underlying this type of aid-free human echolocation has not been investigated. To tackle this question, we recruited echolocation experts, one early- and one late-blind, and measured functional brain activity in each of them while they listened to their own echolocation sounds.
Results
When we compared brain activity for sounds that contained both clicks and the returning echoes with brain activity for control sounds that did not contain the echoes, but were otherwise acoustically matched, we found activity in calcarine cortex in both individuals. Importantly, for the same comparison, we did not observe a difference in activity in auditory cortex. In the early-blind, but not the late-blind participant, we also found that the calcarine activity was greater for echoes reflected from surfaces located in contralateral space. Finally, in both individuals, we found activation in middle temporal and nearby cortical regions when they listened to echoes reflected from moving targets.
Conclusions
These findings suggest that processing of click-echoes recruits brain regions typically devoted to vision rather than audition in both early and late blind echolocation experts.
