Understanding why people born blind never develop schizophrenia could transform how we think about and treat one of medicine’s most baffling conditions.
Brain imaging studies show that in people with congenital cortical blindness, this area is often repurposed for tasks such as language, memory and reasoning. … Without visual input generating a constant stream of ambiguous or unpredictable signals, the brain may settle into more stable ways of interpreting the world, reducing the risk of the misfiring predictions that characterise schizophrenia.
If that’s true, do congenitally bind people show improvements in general prediction tasks? Could that be why there are so many legends about blind soothsayers?
If that’s true, do congenitally bind people show improvements in general prediction tasks? Could that be why there are so many legends about blind soothsayers?