blind people

[math92]

Do blind people see dreams?

I'm undecided on this question. It seems logical that since they cant see in real life, then they dont really get any memories or anything to dream about.

[Logic]

I'm fairly sure that they cannot see anything within a dream if they are born blind and have no recollection of what color is or what the colors are but if they went blind during their lifetime they can still "see" color in their dreams.

[Tanktunker]

I remember seeing this on the front page of Yahoo!.
Search for it in Yahoo! Answers, they have a topic on it there.

Edit: http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/5932/blindpeopledq3.jpg

No, they wouldn't. Visual stimulus is necessary for the wiring of the brain centers that process and interpret vision. The way the brain works is to develop, early in life, a huge number of neural synapses (connection points between neurons that are used in cell-to-cell signalling). As you grow and learn, these synapses are pared away to make the brain function efficiently, and that's the central basis of long-term learning. However, if the brain or any part of it fails to get infromation from hard-wired inputs, then that part of the brain will atrophy (at best, fringe areas of a cortical region might be adopted by adjacent cortical regions for different processes). But the take-away message here is that the brain needs visual stimulus in order to devolp the cortical regions that process vision. In the use-it-or-lose-it sense, the brain will not waste energy building and maintaining processes that aren't used. The optical cortex would never know how to function as an optical cortex in a person born blind.
Thread over.

[Mr. Anderson]

I'm fairly sure that they cannot see anything within a dream if they are born blind and have no recollection of what color is or what the colors are but if they went blind during their lifetime they can still "see" color in their dreams.
That'd seem to be the most logical and likely answer to this, but it's still a fascinating topic.

[cdf50]

no because it just like the aritcle says, your brain needs to be able to see in order to dream

[Syrito]

Dreams are caused by the eyes moving around.

A false picture is emitted. woot.

[¿CRAZYØ¿]

Well, you never know. I think they see something, because if you were asleep and not thinking of anything wouldn't you be dead? Then again maybe they can just think, and it's one of the ways less senses can make you smarter besides handicapped. Like they can solve problems because they don't have an imagination to wander off into and can stick to a point. That's what I think. =p

[Freddy]

couldn't they just dream of the sounds and voices they interacted with before?
like they may get some conversatoin going in a dream, but they don't know what the people's faces are they only recognise the voices. they would have to substitute some kind of image for each person (like a box for person one, a cone for person two, ect).
I'm sure they dream, just differently than we do.

[Squidude]

I talk and hear in my dreams. Sometimes I have whole stories in my dreams. Sometimes I can think on at a nearly normal level when asleep. Why can't blind people have that?

[¿CRAZYØ¿]

couldn't they just dream of the sounds and voices they interacted with before?
like they may get some conversatoin going in a dream, but they don't know what the people's faces are they only recognise the voices. they would have to substitute some kind of image for each person (like a box for person one, a cone for person two, ect).
I'm sure they dream, just differently than we do.


But if they can't see they probably don't understand the concept of a cone or a box. Could you explain it? Sure you probably could but it'd be so much information to remember about a fairly simple object. You'd have to explain widths and height, etc.

[Freddy]

umm... they haven't taken a geometry class?
box, like a cube, six squares joined together.

once they know what a box is once they don't have to go through and redefine for themselves every time they want to use it. they aren't retarded, just blinid.

[gufu1992]

Anyone seen blind people in this forum? :P

[Syrito]

couldn't they just dream of the sounds and voices they interacted with before?
like they may get some conversatoin going in a dream, but they don't know what the people's faces are they only recognise the voices. they would have to substitute some kind of image for each person (like a box for person one, a cone for person two, ect).
I'm sure they dream, just differently than we do.Dreams and sounds would probably be used in reactions to pictures.

[¿CRAZYØ¿]

umm... they haven't taken a geometry class?
box, like a cube, six squares joined together.

once they know what a box is once they don't have to go through and redefine for themselves every time they want to use it. they aren't retarded, just blinid.

I never said they were retarded. What I'm saying is, don't you think it'd be quite a bit harder to understand the concept of a cube without seeing one first? Of course I guess they could give them models to hold in their hands and feel, but I'm just saying.

[Desperation]

couldn't they just dream of the sounds and voices they interacted with before?
like they may get some conversatoin going in a dream, but they don't know what the people's faces are they only recognise the voices. they would have to substitute some kind of image for each person (like a box for person one, a cone for person two, ect).
I'm sure they dream, just differently than we do.I'm at a total agreement with you. Our dreams are created by our subconscious creating sounds and images that seem familiar to us. It wouldn't matter if they didn't see before because familiar sounds would be produced in ways to make it seem unreal. But if this is right then image what Hellen Keller did as she went into REM sleep. Strange.

[Vagrant]

Dreams are caused by the eyes moving around.

A false picture is emitted. woot.

That's REM sleep. The images are not generated by your eyes. The images are generated by your subconscious, going through information received during the day and other times.



As to answer the question, I don't think they see during dreams, but it's possible that they have the "sense" of sight in their dreams. Sort of like how you have a 6th sense when you're dreaming. You seem to be aware of something else. I dunno though, I'm just hypothesizing.

[cdf50]

i still dont believe they see while they're dreaming, anybody have a blind friend they can ask? well.. im guesing it would be hard to ask but try anyway

[Kevim]

I bet this has already been said (Only read the original post), but I don't think somebody who has been blind since childbirth could see images in their dreams. The brain only knows what it learns, and if you are blind you never "learn" color, light, depth, or any of that other crap our eyes perceive.

I do believe someone who has not always been blind though--even at a very young age--could see images in their thoughts and dreams. Colors and people's faces and whatnot would obviously get a bit disorintated and whacked out after so long not seeing them, but still, they're images nontheless.

[The Brown Cow]

But if they can't see they probably don't understand the concept of a cone or a box. Could you explain it? Sure you probably could but it'd be so much information to remember about a fairly simple object. You'd have to explain widths and height, etc.
Er, sense of touch?

Sounds like people born blind certainly do dream, they just dream without any visuals.

[Nerevar]

Agreeing with most people, blind people do dream, but they don't see things. People blind at birth don't see anything at all, but if a person who was blind after birth dreamt, they would actually see things. But, the longer that person who was blinded after birth stayed blinded, the less they see.
So basically, a person who was blinded a few days ago would see fairly clearly, if not a little blurry, while a person who was blind most of their life wouldn't see anything, maybe a few, incredibly blurry images.

[Freddy]

I bet this has already been said (Only read the original post), but I don't think somebody who has been blind since childbirth could see images in their dreams. The brain only knows what it learns, and if you are blind you never "learn" color, light, depth, or any of that other crap our eyes perceive.

I do believe someone who has not always been blind though--even at a very young age--could see images in their thoughts and dreams. Colors and people's faces and whatnot would obviously get a bit disorintated and whacked out after so long not seeing them, but still, they're images nontheless.

you're giving the eyes way too much credit. your sence of touch, hearing and smell contribute so much to deciphering your surroundings. even if they can't see colors or lights, they can still create a enviroment in their minds of what they feal, hear and smell.

they know how far stuff is, from where it came from, if there was anything obvious in the way and a bunch of other things with out their eyes. it's all just built in their heads. think of a video game, but all the characters and enviroments have no textures. It's all wireframe. that's what they see.

[Squidude]

I know a few people who are colorblind, but that's it. The wireframe comparison, and the rest of that post, sounds pretty good.

People with vision who use it can't even understand what it is to be blind, but blind people have their other senses sorta fill the gap, from what I understand.