Someone who was born blind experiences sounds, smells, and sensations while dreaming, but are their dreams visual?

Question from:

Fadhil M. Alibrahim

Saudi Arabia

Via Internet



Someone who was born blind experiences sounds, smells, and sensations while dreaming, but since the brain possesses no visual information, the dreams are not visual, says Charles Crawford, executive director of the American Council of the Blind. A blind person's brain might combine sensory information into a representational image of an object, but that image would bear little resemblance to the object itself.


By contrast, people who become blind as children or adults do have visual dreams, but their dream images depict the world as it appeared around the time they lost their sight. "I lost my vision by the time I was 22," says Crawford. "When I have visual dreams, the images are of the world before the 1960s."

Want to learn more about breakthroughs in electronics, medicine, nanotech, and more?
Subscribe to Popular Science today, for less than $1 per issue!

1 Comment

I appreciate that they still can picture things in their head. Everyone needs to dream a little



July 2013: The Future Of Flight

The incredible innovations, like drone swarms and perpetual flight, bringing aviation into the world of tomorrow. Plus: today's greatest sci-fi writers predict the future, the science behind the summer's biggest blockbusters, a Doctor Who-themed DIY 'bot, the organs you can do without, and much more.


Online Content Director: Suzanne LaBarre | Email
Senior Editor: Paul Adams | Email
Associate Editor: Dan Nosowitz | Email
Assistant Editor: Colin Lecher | Email
Assistant Editor: Rose Pastore | Email

Contributing Writers:

Kelsey D. Atherton | Email
Francie Diep | Email
Shaunacy Ferro | Email

circ-top-header.gif
circ-cover.gif
bmxmag-ps