Embodied Space in Early Blind Individuals

The impact of sensory experience during early life on space perception and control of action has only been scarcely studied. The visual system typically provides the more accurate and reliable spatial information of our surrounding and is then usually considered as the frontrunner sense when spatial processing is at play. The study of visually deprived individual therefore offers a unique opportunity to investigate the role that vision plays in shaping how we process our surrounding space. However, aside quantitative differences between sighted and blind people in their perceptual skills, visual deprivation may also result in qualitatively different ways of processing non-visual information (Eimer, 2004).

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