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People born without sight appear to solve math problems using visual areas of the brain.
A functional MRI study of 17 people blind since birth found that areas of visual cortex became active when the participants were asked to solve algebra problems, a team from Johns Hopkins reports in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"And as the equations get harder and harder, activity in these areas goes up in a blind person," says Marina Bedny, an author of the study and an assistant professor in the department of psychological and brain sciences at Johns Hopkins University.
In 19 sighted people doing the same problems, visual areas of the brain showed no increase in activity.
"That really suggests that yes, blind individuals appear to be doing math with their visual cortex," Bedny says.
Can they reduce math phobia while the subjects are in the MRI machines?
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by jimshatt on Wednesday September 21 2016, @08:29AM
(Score: 2) by jimshatt on Wednesday September 21 2016, @08:31AM
(Score: 2) by martyb on Wednesday September 21 2016, @10:53AM
We have had submissions which used the original story's title and were rightly called out for having used a sensationalistic, inaccurate, or otherwise inappropriate title.
Researchers performed a study and when they asked people who were blind-since-birth to perform algebra, they observed activity in those people's visual cortex. These activities happened in the past. My thinking at the time was analogous to: "When I picked up the glass of water and turned it over, water poured onto the floor." Those are things that happened in the past. That is what led me to change the title to the past tense.
It was 10PM when I edited the story and should probably have gone to bed already.
I've restored the title of the story to that of the original submission.
Editing is not always as easy as it seems, but if you (or anyone else!) feel up to the challenge, we could always use more editors! Feel free to reply here or ask for one of the editors on IRC [soylentnews.org].
Wit is intellect, dancing.