Abstract
Previous studies suggest that people who are congenitally blind outperform sighted people on some memory tasks. Whether blindness-associated memory advantages are specific to verbal materials or are also observed with nonverbal sounds has not been determined. Congenitally blind individuals (n = 20) and age and education matched blindfolded sighted controls (n = 22) performed a series of auditory memory tasks. These included: verbal forward and backward letter spans, a complex letter span with intervening equations, as well as two matched recognition tasks: one with verbal stimuli (i.e., letters) and one with nonverbal complex meaningless sounds. Replicating previously observed findings, blind participants outperformed sighted people on forward and backward letter span tasks. Blind participants also recalled more letters on the complex letter span task despite the interference of intervening equations. Critically, the same blind participants showed larger advantages on the verbal as compared to the nonverbal recognition task. These results suggest that blindness selectively enhances memory for verbal material. Possible explanations for blindness-related verbal memory advantages include blindness-induced memory practice and ‘visual’ cortex recruitment for verbal processing.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.
References
Abboud S, Cohen L (2019) Distinctive interaction between cognitive networks and the visual cortex in early blind individuals. Cereb Cortex 29(11):4725–4742. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhz006
Amedi A, Raz N, Pianka P, Malach R, Zohary E (2003) Early “visual” cortex activation correlates with superior verbal memory performance in the blind. Nat Neurosci 6(7):758–766. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1072
Amedi A, Floel A, Knecht S, Zohary E, Cohen LG (2004) Transcranial magnetic stimulation of the occipital pole interferes with verbal processing in blind subjects. Nat Neurosci 7(11):1266–1270 https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1328
Bedny M, Koster-Hale J, Elli G, Yazzolino L, Saxe R (2019) There’s more to “sparkle” than meets the eye: Knowledge of vision and light verbs among congenitally blind and sighted individuals. Cognition 189:105–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2019.03.017
Bedny M, Pascual-Leone A, Dodell-Feder D, Fedorenko E, Saxe R (2011) Language processing in the occipital cortex of congenitally blind adults. Proc Natl Acad Sci 108(11):4429–4434. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1014818108
Bigham JP, Jayant C, Ji H, Little G, Miller A, Miller RC, Yeh T (2010) VizWiz: nearly real-time answers to visual questions. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology. https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/https://doi.org/10.1145/1866029.1866080?casa_token=eqdciLsaAKsAAAAA:v_iSvCJKVqaa-xY5ls_4fwveOme0IVWxS0hy40kPYpp_vBoRYqOVaGI-i6tDdYMTqiBvusMwGw1eZg
Bliss I, Kujala T, Hämäläinen H (2004) Comparison of blind and sighted participants’ performance in a letter recognition working memory task. Cogn Brain Res 18(3):273–277. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2003.10.012
Brainard DH (1997) The psychophysics toolbox. Spat vis 10(4):433–436. https://doi.org/10.1163/156856897X00357
Bull R, Rathborn H, Clifford BR (1983) The voice-recognition accuracy of blind listeners. Perception 12(2):223–226. https://doi.org/10.1068/p120223
Burton H, Sinclair RJ, Dixit S (2010) Working memory for vibrotactile frequencies: comparison of cortical activity in blind and sighted individuals. Hum Brain Mapp 31(11):1686–1701. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.20966
Burton H, Sinclair RJ, Agato A (2012a) Recognition memory for Braille or spoken words: an fMRI study in early blind. Brain Res 1438:22–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2011.12.032
Burton MA, Brady E, Brewer R, Neylan C, Bigham JP, Hurst A (2012b) Crowdsourcing subjective fashion advice using VizWiz: challenges and opportunities. In: Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 14th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility. https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/https://doi.org/10.1145/2384916.2384941?casa_token=6ooogdNdgOQAAAAA:wKavzQwyNOERUaGzbCjEktqKh_Y6qSlmQty8otfhCsLdPazrBzTehrAK1FtIIhc7Tbj0PA5tm7HbZA
Castronovo J, Delvenne JF (2013) Superior numerical abilities following early visual deprivation. Cortex 49(5):1435–1440. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2012.12.018
Cattaneo Z, Vecchi T, Cornoldi C, Mammarella I, Bonino D, Ricciardi E, Pietrini P (2008) Imagery and spatial processes in blindness and visual impairment. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 32(8):1346–1360. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2008.05.002
Chan AS, Ho Y-C, Cheung M-C (1998) Music training improves verbal memory. Nature 396(6707):128–128. https://doi.org/10.1038/24075
Christoffels IK, De Groot AM, Kroll JF (2006) Memory and language skills in simultaneous interpreters: the role of expertise and language proficiency. J Mem Lang 54(3):324–345. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2005.12.004
Cohen LG, Weeks R.A, Sadato N, Celnik P, Ishii K, Hallett M (1999). Period of susceptibility for cross‐modal plasticity in the blind. Annals of Neurology: Official Journal of the American Neurological Association and the Child Neurology Society, 45(4):451–460. https://doi.org/10.1002/1531-8249(199904)45:4<451::AID-ANA6>3.0.CO;2-B
Cohen H, Voss P, Lepore F, Scherzer P (2010) The nature of working memory for Braille. PLoS ONE 5(5):e10833. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010833
Cohen MA, Evans KK, Horowitz TS, Wolfe JM (2011) Auditory and visual memory in musicians and nonmusicians. Psychon Bull Rev 18(3):586–591. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-011-0074-0
Collignon O, Vandewalle G, Voss P, Albouy G, Charbonneau G, Lassonde M, Lepore F (2011) Functional specialization for auditory–spatial processing in the occipital cortex of congenitally blind humans. Proc Natl Acad Sci 108(11):4435–4440. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1013928108
Cornell Kärnekull S, Arshamian A, Nilsson ME, Larsson M (2016) From perception to metacognition: auditory and olfactory functions in early blind, late blind, and sighted individuals. Front Psychol 7:1450. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01450
Cornoldi C, Cortesi A, Preti D (1991) Individual differences in the capacity limitations of visuospatial short-term memory: research on sighted and totally congenitally blind people. Mem Cognit 19(5):459–468. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03199569
Dormal V, Crollen V, Baumans C, Lepore F, Collignon O (2016) Early but not late blindness leads to enhanced arithmetic and working memory abilities. Cortex 83:212–221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2016.07.016
Ericsson KA, Lehmann AC (1996) Expert and exceptional performance: evidence of maximal adaptation to task constraints. Annu Rev Psychol 47(1):273–305. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.47.1.273
Föcker J, Best A, Hölig C, Röder B (2012) The superiority in voice processing of the blind arises from neural plasticity at sensory processing stages. Neuropsychologia 50(8):2056–2067. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.05.006
Fortin M, Voss P, Lord C, Lassonde M, Pruessner J, Saint-Amour D, Lepore F (2008) Wayfinding in the blind: larger hippocampal volume and supranormal spatial navigation. Brain 131(11):2995–3005. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awn250
Frank MC, Everett DL, Fedorenko E, Gibson E (2008) Number as a cognitive technology: evidence from Pirahã language and cognition. Cognition 108(3):819–824. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2008.04.007
Franklin MS, Sledge Moore K, Yip C-Y, Jonides J, Rattray K, Moher J (2008) The effects of musical training on verbal memory. Psychol Music 36(3):353–365. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735607086044
Gougoux F, Zatorre RJ, Lassonde M, Voss P, Lepore F (2005) A functional neuroimaging study of sound localization: visual cortex activity predicts performance in early-blind individuals. PLoS Biol 3(2):e27. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0030027
Gudi-Mindermann H, Rimmele JM, Nolte G, Bruns P, Engel AK, Röder B (2018) Working memory training in congenitally blind individuals results in an integration of occipital cortex in functional networks. Behav Brain Res 348:31–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2018.04.002
Ho Y-C, Cheung M-C, Chan AS (2003) Music training improves verbal but not visual memory: cross-sectional and longitudinal explorations in children. Neuropsychology 17(3):439. https://doi.org/10.1037/0894-4105.17.3.439
Hull T, Mason H (1995) Performance of blind children on digit-span tests. J vis Impairment Blind 89(2):166–169. https://doi.org/10.1177/0145482X9508900213
Kanjlia S, Lane C, Feigenson L, Bedny M (2016) Absence of visual experience modifies the neural basis of numerical thinking. Proc Natl Acad Sci 113(40):11172–11177. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1524982113
Kim JS, Elli GV, Bedny M (2019) Knowledge of animal appearance among sighted and blind adults. Proc Natl Acad Sci 116(23):11213–11222. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1900952116
Kupers R, Pappens M, de Noordhout A.M, Schoenen J, Ptito, M, Fumal A (2007). rTMS of the occipital cortex abolishes Braille reading and repetition priming in blind subjects. Neurology, 68(9): 691–693. https://doi.org/10.1212/01.wnl.0000255958.60530.11
Lane C, Kanjlia S, Omaki A, Bedny M (2015) “Visual” cortex of congenitally blind adults responds to syntactic movement. J Neurosci 35(37):12859–12868. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1256-15.2015
Loiotile R, Omaki A, Bedny M (2019) Enhanced sentence processing abilities among congenitally blind adults. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/M87SV
Occelli V, Lacey S, Stephens C, Merabet LB, Sathian K (2017) Enhanced verbal abilities in the congenitally blind. Exp Brain Res 235(6):1709–1718. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-017-4931-6
Pasqualotto A, Lam JS, Proulx MJ (2013) Congenital blindness improves semantic and episodic memory. Behav Brain Res 244:162–165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2013.02.005
Pelli DG (1997) The VideoToolbox software for visual psychophysics: transforming numbers into movies. Spat vis 10(4):437–442. https://doi.org/10.1163/156856897X00366
Pigeon C, Marin-Lamellet C (2015) Evaluation of the attentional capacities and working memory of early and late blind persons. Acta Physiol (oxf) 155:1–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2014.11.010
Raz N, Amedi A, Zohary E (2005) V1 activation in congenitally blind humans is associated with episodic retrieval. Cereb Cortex 15(9):1459–1468. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhi026
Raz N, Striem E, Pundak G, Orlov T, Zohary E (2007) Superior serial memory in the blind: a case of cognitive compensatory adjustment. Curr Biol 17(13):1129–1133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2007.05.060
Rimmele JM, Gudi-Mindermann H, Nolte G, Röder B, Engel AK (2019) Working memory training integrates visual cortex into beta-band networks in congenitally blind individuals. Neuroimage 194:259–271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.03.003
Röder B, Demuth L, Streb J, Rösler F (2003) Semantic and morpho-syntactic priming in auditory word recognition in congenitally blind adults. Lang Cognit Process 18(1):1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/01690960143000407
Röder B, Rösler F (2003) Memory for environmental sounds in sighted, congenitally blind and late blind adults: evidence for cross-modal compensation. Int J Psychophysiol 50(1–2):27–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0167-8760(03)00122-3
Röder B, Rösler F, Neville HJ (2000) Event-related potentials during auditory language processing in congenitally blind and sighted people. Neuropsychologia 38(11):1482–1502. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0028-3932(00)00057-9
Röder B, Rösler F, Neville HJ (2001) Auditory memory in congenitally blind adults: a behavioral-electrophysiological investigation. Cogn Brain Res 11(2):289–303. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0926-6410(01)00002-7
Röder B, Stock O, Bien S, Neville H, Rösler F (2002) Speech processing activates visual cortex in congenitally blind humans. Eur J Neurosci 16(5):930–936. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1460-9568.2002.02147.x
Rokem A, Ahissar M (2009) Interactions of cognitive and auditory abilities in congenitally blind individuals. Neuropsychologia 47(3):843–848. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.12.017
Sinclair RJ, Dixit S, Burton H (2011) Recognition memory for vibrotactile rhythms: An fMRI study in blind and sighted individuals. Somatosens Mot Res 28(3–4):48–62. https://doi.org/10.3109/08990220.2011.602765
Smits B, Mommers M (1976) Differences between blind and sighted children on WISC verbal subtests. J vis Impairment Blind 70(6):240–246. https://doi.org/10.1177/0145482X7607000604
Stankov L, Spilsbury G (1978) The measurement of auditory abilities of blind, partially sighted, and sighted children. Appl Psychol Meas 2(4):491–503. https://doi.org/10.1177/014662167800200403
Struiksma ME, Noordzij ML, Postma A (2009) What is the link between language and spatial images? Behavioral and neural findings in blind and sighted individuals. Acta Physiol (oxf) 132(2):145–156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2009.04.002
Swanson HL, Luxenberg D (2009) Short-term memory and working memory in children with blindness: support for a domain general or domain specific system? Child Neuropsychol 15(3):280–294. https://doi.org/10.1080/09297040802524206
Thaler L, Arnott S, Goodale M (2011) Neural correlates of natural human echolocation in early and late blind echolocation experts. PLoS ONE 6(5):e20162. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0020162
Tillman MH, Bashaw WL (1968) Multivariate analysis of the WISC scales for blind and sighted children. Psychol Rep 23(2):523–526. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1968.23.2.523
Vecchi T (1998) Visuo-spatial imagery in congenitally totally blind people. Memory 6(1):91–102. https://doi.org/10.1080/741941601
Vercillo T, Milne JL, Gori M, Goodale MA (2015) Enhanced auditory spatial localization in blind echolocators. Neuropsychologia 67:35–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.12.001
Voss P, Lassonde M, Gougoux F, Fortin M, Guillemot JP, Lepore F (2004) Early- and late-onset blind individuals show supra-normal auditory abilities in far-space. Curr Biol 14(19):1734–1738. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2004.09.051
Withagen A, Kappers AM, Vervloed MP, Knoors H, Verhoeven L (2013) Short term memory and working memory in blind versus sighted children. Res Dev Disabil 34(7):2161–2172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2013.03.028
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the study participants, the blind community, as well as the National Federation of the Blind for their assistance with this research. We also wish to thank Rashi Pant, Brianna Aheimer, and other members of the Neuroplasticity and Development Lab for assisting with collecting data. We gratefully acknowledge funding from a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (DGE-1321846) (to Karen Arcos) and a University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellowship to (Karen Arcos). We also acknowledge a Grant from the National Eye Institute at the National Institutes of Health (1R01EY027352-01A), as well as a Science of Learning Grant from Johns Hopkins University. The authors are solely responsible for the content; it does not necessarily represent funding agencies' official views.
Funding
A National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (DGE-1321846) and a University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellowship supported (Karen Arcos). A Grant from the National Eye Institute at the National Institutes of Health (1R01EY027352-01A), as well as a Science of Learning Grant from Johns Hopkins University also supported this research. The authors have no financial or proprietary interests in any material discussed in this article.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interests
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest or competing interests.
Availability of data and material
Data is available in an Open Science Framework (OSF) project (https://osf.io/etgyh).
Code availability
Data analysis code is available in an OSF project (https://osf.io/etgyh).
Additional information
Communicated by Melvyn A. Goodale.
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Arcos, K., Harhen, N., Loiotile, R. et al. Superior verbal but not nonverbal memory in congenital blindness. Exp Brain Res 240, 897–908 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-021-06304-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-021-06304-4
Keywords
- Congenitally blind
- Verbal
- Nonverbal
- Memory
- Recognition memory