[NIFL-POVRACELIT:257] Re: Fw: Sight, Sound and the Experiential Divide

From: Catherine King (cb.king@verizon.net)
Date: Thu Oct 26 2000 - 19:16:39 EDT


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From: "Catherine King" <cb.king@verizon.net>
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Subject: [NIFL-POVRACELIT:257] Re: Fw: Sight, Sound and the Experiential Divide
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Kathleen:

I agree with you that "it is more than reconstructing meaning,..."

The point is, that the development of meaning is what makes the
pathways develop in the brain, and the difference between seeing
and hearing people on the one hand, and deaf or blind people on
the other is the fact that the meaning has been developed in
vastly different ways and through different senses so that the
alternative brain pathways and patterns are also differently
affected as we grow in those meaningful paths--again, in vastly
different ways.

One of the vast implications of meaning pathways is that
for Helen Keller, for instance, water still means water--the
thing that we drink and that satisfies our thirst--etc., etc., even
though the pathway of the  brain may be entirely differently
"hard-wired."

Catherine

----- Original Message -----
From: <KathleenBombach@aol.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov>
Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2000 11:26 AM
Subject: [NIFL-POVRACELIT:251] Re: Fw: Sight, Sound and the Experiential
Divide


> Catherine:
> It is more than reconstructing meaning for the blind to be able to see. It
> has to do with the biology of the brain, which is hardwired to create
> cognitive patterns out of what are random bits of light and dark. People
who
> have their sight restored have brains that 'rewired' the myriad visual
> pathways to do other things or whose visual pathways have never developed.
> Kathleen



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