This article is part of Nature Outlook: VisionIndependent editor created by Astlolas Pharma’s financial support. About this content.
Using reflected sounds as an echo is the behavior that links to bats, whales, whales, and dolphins, but other species also use sensory technique – including humans. Once the blind was thought that only the blind could be excel in Oklocation, but the research has shown that anyone can learn. Flower Thaler, Neuroscientialist at Durham University, United Kingdom, Nature About efforts to make okolocational training more accessible.
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It is basically equal to bats, but humans use them and use audiovers, and bats usually make ultrasonic chirps. Sounds return from the surface and echoes help people set something. The size and forms of the object causes what the echoes look like and it gives time to return the sound how far the object is. People can also use the technique of working in the direction – if something is on your right, echo your right ear will be a little stronger than your left, and soon reach a fraction.
How do you teach someone to echo?
The first step is to help someone find a good sound. Some use finger-snaps; Others prefer to deny your feet or hanging keys. People who are very good in OkloCation use mouthcles.
The second step is to teach someone what to listen to. To begin with, we keep objects in front of a person’s face. The echo in this case is very fast, so you don’t listen to other resonents, it’s just a change in sound quality. We ask them to make the sound with and without the object, back and forth, to appreciate the difference in sound. When they trust that, we move objects to the right or left. And then we encourage people to move, starting with his head. When you bring the movement, it makes it clear that you control a part of the space you are wondering.
Such a first session can take an hour. Then it’s mostly about repetition – you practice. One thing to emphasize is how coherent your sound is, the easier it will be to interpret the echoes that will be returned, so it is worth finding a consistent sound. When practicing this, you are training in favor of perception, picking up your brain better in these sounds.
What evidence do you work?
In 2021, we have entered three specific tasks that we entered three specific tasks: judged the orientation of a board; determine size; And browsing a virtual space using sounds simulated through headphones. We found it during ten weekly study, participants improved in all tasks. At the end of training, some people can do these specific tasks, as well as those who have used the resonate for most of their lives.
What can a successful okolocator do?
The expert by the expert can do great things with that skill. For example, whether the objective move away from a meter or not five centimeters can work closer. People are as good as it can do with sight. They can say whether something is concrete – punch or flat, and whether it is a square or a circular.
What about the brain in the brain in Echolocia?
We scanned people’s brains while they were trying to navigate a virtual environment. They had acoustically driven through a set of corridors and they had to judge the design. After training, we found that activity increased in certain brain entry. And when people listened to the echo, it is not generally sound.
It was really interesting that this change in brain activity was blind and sight in people. In the past, it was thought that you should be very good in Echolocation, but our data does not support it. There was no evidence that the participants responded to better preparation than participants.
In the hearing cortex, of course, we also found that the training generally influenced the increase in activity in response. We also increased the thickness of the gray in the right auditoric cortex.
What difference can iples do?
We followed three-month participants in our research, in which we asked people how to improve the training of mobility and independence. We found experiences brought great positive changes in their lives.
Echolocal gives people to explore the environment differently. It is an active way to detect, because you are making sound, it can be louder and quieter and you can send it in different directions. The mouth clicks seem aloud, but because they are very short, but we measured the intensity peaks of 93 Decibel SPT (Sound pressure level) and listen to 100-meter trips. Your touch range is perhaps a couple of meters, if you have a long cane, so Echolokarkation allows you to feel much more distance from the environment.
How are you doing these skills?
This workout is currently available because there is simply not enough people. We have a project that we train professionals who work with people with visual impairment. Then they meet their skills to people who work, so they act as multipliers. It’s very learning, and it costs little.
During 2018, we had a day workshops around the UK for about 200 employees of UK, to learn and maintain skills that will help people with visually impairments. Before each workshop, we sent a video to find out how to do the best click. Then, on the day of training, we verified that the clicks of the participants are appropriate and consistent. Then we made awareness, placing an object in front of, on the side, etc., and then we provided exercises we can do with visual customers, such as positioning open door.
All of these rehabilitation staff already provide long-training training, and they usually work with adults in specific routes. We teach them how to integrate okolocation training together. We always tell the echolocation that is not a lonely skill – it should be used with other support, such as a long cane or a driver dog.
What types were these workshops?
We still do not know how that affects the visual people, because they have not yet been data among customers of rehabilitation workers. After three months of running workshops, we made a simple question for our professional participants: training has affected your practice? And if they said yes, we asked them how to tell them.
Nearly half of the respondents said I boiled to boil to boiling people reading reading people. After all, what we want, but not the only good result. One third of the people said that the customer helped to better understand. If a visually impaired person hears that there are sometimes open doors, that has a perfect sense, and maybe he didn’t. And if the rehabilitation staff says: “I think you’re using okolocation – did you try to click on your mouth?” Then they are offering useful information.
What comes next?
We know that we can measure the benefits that we can train directly blind, but our study sample has been relatively low in research. We need to roll that on a larger scale to confirm the results.
This month we plan to start more training sessions for rehabilitation staff. To measure how effective training is effective, we encourage rehabilitation staff to tell customers how to harm their lives using an anonymous online portal. We need data on the influence of training, which ultimately help people.
In the future, the ideal situation would assume other people to teach other people to teach others.
I can’t always do training! We got an exciting new project in the UK guide, where we offer people to train for a day, but for longer periods, you can give the workouts themselves. This will allow us to scale training and improve the lives of many people. We want ecolocation as a long-term training. That’s going.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
