Retention of high tactile acuity throughout the life span in blindness

Previous studies of tactile acuity on the fingertip, using passive touch, have demonstrated an age-related decline in spatial resolution for both sighted and blind subjects. We have reexamined this age dependence with two newly designed tactile-acuity charts that require active exploration of the te...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Perception & psychophysics 2008-11, Vol.70 (8), p.1471-1488
Main Authors: Legge, Gordon E., Madison, Cindee, Vaughn, Brenna N., Cheong, Allen M. Y., Miller, Joseph C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Adult. Elderly
Aged
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Biological and medical sciences
Blindness
Cognitive Psychology
Developmental psychology
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Humans
Learning. Memory
Male
Medical sciences
Memory
Middle Aged
Ophthalmology
Perception
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Retention (Psychology)
Tactile perception
Touch
Vision disorders
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Summary:Previous studies of tactile acuity on the fingertip, using passive touch, have demonstrated an age-related decline in spatial resolution for both sighted and blind subjects. We have reexamined this age dependence with two newly designed tactile-acuity charts that require active exploration of the test symbols. One chart used dot patterns similar to braille, and the other used embossed Landolt rings. Groups of blind braille readers and sighted subjects ranging from 12 to 85 years old were tested in two experiments. We replicated previous findings for sighted subjects by showing an age-related decrease in tactile acuity by nearly 1% per year. Surprisingly, the blind subjects retained high acuity into old age, showing no age-related decline. For the blind subjects, tactile acuity did not correlate with braille reading speed, the amount of daily reading, or the age at which braille was learned. We conclude that when measured with active touch, blind subjects retain high tactile acuity into old age, unlike their aging sighted peers. We propose that blind people's use of active touch in daily activities, not specifically braille reading, results in preservation of tactile acuity across the life span.
ISSN:0031-5117
1532-5962
DOI:10.3758/PP.70.8.1471