Blind man 'sees' emotions

Wasn't sure where to put this, but seeing as it's described as a 'sixth sense' I think this is the place.

Scientists at a University in Wales have been doing some interesting studies with a blind patient. When the patient is shown pictures of shapes, he obviously can't see them and makes guesses as to what they are. When he's shown pictures of a male or female face with a neutral expression he can't guess the sex, but when he is shown pictures of faces displaying emotion he can identify them to a degree that goes beyond chance.

The scientists were able to establish the identification of facial emotions is preformed in the right amygdala rather than the visual cortex.

Interesting stuff.

news.bbc.co.uk...

This is not a big deal...

I can see emotions too, without seeing the person near me. That blind man didn't recognize anything on a sheet of paper, but rather the emotions of those people near him. This is really a sixth sense, and many people can handle it in their everyday life, perhaps less aware of it than a blind man under experiment.

Furthermore, I can send emotions to people through telepathy, without any body-expression. This is not a big deal, either. Only the scientists and media are interested in things like this, because they have no idea, what it is...

Are you saying the people showing him the images of people acted out the emotions of the people they were showing him? Unlikely.

It's important for the building of evidence for these abilities. Anyone can say they can do this or that but without scientific proof it's meaningless to most people. Proof seems to be the thing lacking with most people claiming special abilities. With work such as this the abilitys can leave the realm of 'special' and be shown as normal abilities when it is shown how it comes about. Which is a good thing for anyone interested in the truth.

[edit on 16-12-2004 by kegs]

I had actually posted a news article about it
www.atsnn.com...

with links to the original study and press release.

The man is not using any sort of paranormal ability. His eyes are functional, his brain is generally functional, except that a portion that relays information from the eyes to the portion of the brain that processes visual images is damaged. As a result, he is completely and utterly blind.

However, the eyes still receive information, and apparently that information is being processed in a seperate part of the brain.