00:04You've probably heard the trope that when someone goes blind, their other senses become more acute.
00:09Well, a new study indicates that might actually be true.
00:12Researchers tracked the heartbeats of 36 blind and 36 sighted individuals.
00:16When asked to track their own heartbeats, the sighted participants scored a .63, a 1.0 being a perfect score.
00:23However, when the blind individuals were asked to do the same, they scored a .78,
00:27a significantly more accurate beat tracking.
00:30With the researchers writing about the results in their report,
00:33quote, this suggests that brain plasticity following blindness leads to superior ability in sensing signals from the heart,
00:39which has implications for the study of bodily awareness and emotional processing in blind individuals.
00:44Brain plasticity or neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to change and create new or altered neural networks
00:50to allow it to adapt to different circumstances.
00:52This is now leading scientists to the anterior insula portion of the brain.
00:56The area responsible for processing signals from the heart,
01:00hopefully putting us on track to better understand brain plasticity, blindness, and how it may enhance one's other senses.
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