What does a blindman see?

People still hasn't put any thought into this one, cmon people, this to me is very interesting.......

I've often wondered the same thing. Do they see solid black, solid grey, white, a kaleidoscope of colors, or what?

They see nothing. They are blind.

They imagine things.

Yes, but...but...when I close my eyes, I can't "see" anything either. But I do see dark grey. That's what makes me wonder.

Actually, they see shadows, dark and bright. (No one is really totally blind - they can see about 2%.)

I gave classes in sex education in a high school/college for blind people: intersting to notice the differences between those, who were blind from birth and those, who later became blind/still could see up to 20%.

in this discussion only scientific methods can help us

No one is totally blind? I hadn't heard of that before.

Oliver Sacks talked about this... I don't remember the conclusion, though. (Too busy/ lazy [is not an oxymoron] to look it up right now.)

I think there are variations. One can be legally blind and still see quite a bit. As the retina breaks down, one tends to see floating shapes, and they are actually floating bits, in the vitreous humour area in front of the retina. Presumably then the optic nerve is still transmitting images of those, even if the eye lens is not introducing data from outside the eye.

One tends to lose outer vision or inner, as rods or cones in the retina fail to function, though sometimes both, and in advanced cases the nerve itself degenerates... this can happen when the lens is still fine, from various diseases. Or the lens can cloud, with the retinal area still in working order, though that can usually be fixed. Corneal problems can also mess up vision. Most of these situations are fairly slow to happen, over years. Thus people can see somewhat as the process happens.

Eye pressure, such as in glaucoma, can cause direct nerve damage, so the main trunk line for info to the brain is injured. This can be sudden and is irreversible. So then you are left with what is stored in the brain.

In the case of trauma where you actually lose eyesight all at once, I presume you still have your mental catalog of visual memories.

We still see images in our mind as we sleep, or can close our eyes and describe a beach scene. Or keep our eyes open and describe a different scene from what is in front of us.

I don't know so much scientifically about losing eyesight, but I know a little from personal experiences. My eyesight is back to functional normal now, though it is susceptible to trouble. But, all this has made me appreciate the treasure that vision is.




Edit to add that I was under a local anaestheic when my eye surgery went awry, thus was awake for it, and the light and color show as my lens broke up and pieces went flying back towards the retina was gorgeous.

We have two "not fully blind" people who come in to our art gallery to see paintings. One has macular vision loss and very little color apprehension. (it's not macular degeneration, it's something different, but I forget the name of the condition.) He comes in with his yellow lab dog and walks up to the paintings very close.

Another woman who has been blind in both eyes since a car accident when she was ten comes in and also stands close to the paintings, but in her case she can get just a smidge of light into the eye and has small windows of vision toward the center... she sees some color. She has bought paintings for the joy they bring. I see her around town, with a white cane, striding fairly confidently. She's around thirty.

I loved the answers guys, but, my question is not what they physically see, but what they see in their minds....If I were to mention apple to a man that sees he will have an image engraved in his mind, but what is that image that a blindman, that was blind from birth?

I misread the question, re blind from birth, sorry about that.

I did quickly look up Oliver Sachs in google and found some bits that tell more about what they don't see.. (depth, whole forms, etc.)
However, I barely started looking.


http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro01/web2/MillerA.html
http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Meadow/8921/hensil2.html

Thanks man....

don't forget the writing on the wall...they can see that.....

can you imagine being blind, how messed up that would be

what do you prefer, being deaf or being blind?

I heard somewhere that blind-from-birth people have amazing dreams, just crazy colours and shapes and suchlike. As they have no idea what things are supposed to look like there's no limit to the shapes and colours they can imagine.

You have to learn to see and the window for this learning in humans seems to be in the first year of life.

Experiments with baby rats who have their eyes sewn shut show that once the window is past, the eyes are functional but the brain makes no sense of the images the eyes see.

Really Noddy?

Oh my. I would love to see that study if you come across a link. That is really interesting.

I have really crappy vision, correctable, thank goodness, because from the time I was about 8 years old I wanted to grow up to be a photographer and thats what I grew up to be.

I have thought about what it would be like to be blind but I really can't imagine it.

I have photographed blind people - and thats a real trip - and so completely cool because they don't know about "pretty". In a world obsessed with beauty, vision makes us all a bit prejudice.

The blind are not fooled by beauty.

But more to the point - the blind probably understand "apple" better than I understand "India". While I might have seen photos, I've never held it or smelled it or tasted it.