Jun 07, 2021 12:00:00

Humans can learn 'echolocation' to grasp the surroundings using echoes in just 10 weeks of training

Reverberation localization (echolocation) is a method of knowing the distance, direction, size, etc. of an object from the echo of the emitted sound or ultrasonic waves, and is known to be performed by bats and dolphins. A new study shows that humans can acquire echolocation abilities in just 10 weeks of training.

Human click-based echolocation: Effects of blindness and age, and real-life implications in a 10-week training program
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0252330

Can echolocation help those with vision loss?
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-06-echolocation-vision-loss.html

Humans Can Learn How to'Echolocate' in Just 10 Weeks, Experiment Shows
https://www.sciencealert.com/blind-and-sighted-people-can-learn-to-echolocate-in-as-few-as-10-weeks

Echolocation is usually a skill related to animals such as bats and dolphins, but some visually impaired people also have the ability to echolocate, and the echo of the sound they emit can be used to determine the direction, size, and object of the obstacle. You can perceive the contour. As a method of making a sound, in addition to the click sound by tapping the tongue, there are cases where the cane hits the ground or the finger snaps.

A 2019 study found that the brain of a blind person who learned echolocation had the visual cortex, which is the part of the brain related to vision, working when listening to sound.

Research results show that blind people who perceive their surroundings with sound change their brains to 'see with sound' --GIGAZINE

However, although echolocation ability can be a useful tool for the visually impaired, it is not taught in general training and rehabilitation at the time of writing the article. Therefore, a research team at the Faculty of Psychology at Durham University in the United Kingdom conducted an experiment to train echolocation for visually impaired people and people with normal vision.

The experiment involved 12 visually impaired people who were diagnosed as blind in early childhood and 14 visually impaired people. Subjects ranged in age from 21 to 79 years, with a median age of 45 for the visually impaired and a median of 26 for the visually impaired. The research team conducted a total of 20 sessions over a 10-week period, using echolocation to practice moving through virtual mazes such as T-shaped and U-shaped intersections, or zigzag corridors, and using tongue-and-groove sounds. He said that he was trained to grasp the size and direction of the object.

In the last two sessions, subjects were tested to move through a virtual maze that they had never worked on in echolocation to see how well they had acquired echolocation abilities in 10 weeks of training. As a result, it was found that the ability of echolocation was significantly improved in both blind and visible subjects. The researchers report that newly learned subjects were able to navigate the maze much like the experts who have used echolocation for several years.

In this experiment, it seems that a 79-year-old subject with visual impairment was also able to acquire echolocation, and there was no effect on the acquisition of echolocation depending on the subject's age and the presence or absence of visual impairment. 'Importantly, there was no evidence of an association between age and performance when subjects quantified how much their ability improved from session 1 to session 20 in each task,' the research team said. Says.

Visually impaired subjects also participated in a three-month follow-up study to assess the impact of echolocation ability on daily life. As a result, all visually impaired subjects reported that the ability of echolocation improved mobility, and 10 out of 12 reported that the ability of echolocation helped to 'improve independence and well-being.' That thing.

'I can't think of any other study of visually impaired subjects with such enthusiastic feedback,' said

Lore Thaler, an associate professor of the research team. 'We are very excited about the results. It makes sense to provide information and training on click-based echolocation for people who still have functional vision but who are expected to lose vision in the future due to progressive eye disease. I feel that it is true. '