Early Blindness Sharpens Sense of Sound

squidfrog writes "Canadian researchers (articles here, here, and here) have released findings that 'compare the hearing perception of people who lost their sight by age 2, individuals who went blind between the ages 5 and 45, and people with normal vision. The test involved listening to a series of two tones. For each set of tones, subjects had to determine whether the pitch was rising or falling.' 'It has long been known that blind people are far better than their sighted counterparts at orientating themselves by sound... this latest research has found that blind people are also up to 10 times better at discerning pitch changes than the sighted, but only when they went blind before the age of two.'"

Comments

the blind....

[karnal]

I'll also bet that people who are blind aren't likely to attempt to light firecrackers at an early age (12) and have one go off near their left ear, causing tinnitus at that early of an age. They may also not be so inclined to attempt to play live music at such volumes to destroy their ears.

Of course, my right ear still has no ringing in it (age 29 now), but if I concentrate, I can tell my left ear still rings. There are days I wish I hadn't lit that firecracker... but you only live once!

I have a similar story

[DrSkwid]

I was born premature and have impaired hearing.

My body compensated and now I have an elevated sense of self importance.

In other news...

[vasqzr]

People who lose their legs early in life have stronger and have more dexterity in their arms than people who don't.

Re:Daredevil!

[AuMatar]

Also th emost useless superhero of all. His special power is that he's a blind man who can see. The two cancel each other out! Its like he's a normal man.