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Changes in primary visual and auditory cortex of blind and sighted adults following 10 weeks of click-based echolocation training (2024)
Journal Article
Norman, L., Hartley, T., & Thaler, L. (2024). Changes in primary visual and auditory cortex of blind and sighted adults following 10 weeks of click-based echolocation training. Cerebral Cortex, 34(6), Article bhae239. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhae239

Recent work suggests that the adult human brain is very adaptable when it comes to sensory processing. In this context, it has also been suggested that structural “blueprints” may fundamentally constrain neuroplastic change, e.g. in response to senso... Read More about Changes in primary visual and auditory cortex of blind and sighted adults following 10 weeks of click-based echolocation training.

Effects of type of emission and masking sound, and their spatial correspondence, on blind and sighted people’s ability to echolocate (2024)
Journal Article
Thaler, L., Castillo-Serrano, J. G., Kish, D., & Norman, L. (2024). Effects of type of emission and masking sound, and their spatial correspondence, on blind and sighted people’s ability to echolocate. Neuropsychologia, 196, Article 108822. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2024.108822

Ambient sound can mask acoustic signals. The current study addressed how echolocation in people is affected by masking sound, and the role played by type of sound and spatial (i.e. binaural) similarity. We also investigated the role played by blindne... Read More about Effects of type of emission and masking sound, and their spatial correspondence, on blind and sighted people’s ability to echolocate.

The occipital place area is recruited for echo-acoustically guided navigation in blind human echolocators (2023)
Journal Article
Norman, L. J., & Thaler, L. (2023). The occipital place area is recruited for echo-acoustically guided navigation in blind human echolocators. Journal of Neuroscience, 43(24), 4470-4486. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.1402-22.2023

In the investigation of the brain areas involved in human spatial navigation, the traditional focus has been on visually guided navigation in sighted people. Consequently, it is unclear whether involved areas also support navigational abilities in ot... Read More about The occipital place area is recruited for echo-acoustically guided navigation in blind human echolocators.

Human Echolocators Have Better Localization Off Axis (2022)
Journal Article
Thaler, L., Norman, L., De Vos, H., Kish, D., Antoniou, M., Baker, C., & Hornikx, M. (2022). Human Echolocators Have Better Localization Off Axis. Psychological Science, 33(7), 1143-1153. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976211068070

Here, we report novel empirical results from a psychophysical experiment in which we tested the echolocation abilities of nine blind adult human experts in click-based echolocation. We found that they had better acuity in localizing a target and used... Read More about Human Echolocators Have Better Localization Off Axis.

No effect of 10-week training in click-based echolocation on auditory localization in people who are blind (2021)
Journal Article
Thaler, L., & Norman, L. J. (2021). No effect of 10-week training in click-based echolocation on auditory localization in people who are blind. Experimental Brain Research, 239(12), 3625-3633. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-021-06230-5

What factors are important in the calibration of mental representations of auditory space? A substantial body of research investigating the audiospatial abilities of people who are blind has shown that visual experience might be an important factor f... Read More about No effect of 10-week training in click-based echolocation on auditory localization in people who are blind.

Human click-based echolocation: Effects of blindness and age, and real-life implications in a 10-week training program (2021)
Journal Article
Norman, L. J., Dodsworth, C., Foresteire, D., & Thaler, L. (2021). Human click-based echolocation: Effects of blindness and age, and real-life implications in a 10-week training program. PLoS ONE, 16(6), Article e0252330. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252330

Understanding the factors that determine if a person can successfully learn a novel sensory skill is essential for understanding how the brain adapts to change, and for providing rehabilitative support for people with sensory loss. We report a traini... Read More about Human click-based echolocation: Effects of blindness and age, and real-life implications in a 10-week training program.

Increased emission intensity can compensate for the presence of noise in human click-based echolocation (2021)
Journal Article
Castillo-Serrano, J., Norman, L., Foresteire, D., & Thaler, L. (2021). Increased emission intensity can compensate for the presence of noise in human click-based echolocation. Scientific Reports, 11(1), Article 1750. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81220-9

Echolocating bats adapt their emissions to succeed in noisy environments. In the present study we investigated if echolocating humans can detect a sound-refecting surface in the presence of noise and if intensity of echolocation emissions (i.e. click... Read More about Increased emission intensity can compensate for the presence of noise in human click-based echolocation.

Perceptual constancy with a novel sensory skill (2020)
Journal Article
Norman, L. J., & Thaler, L. (2021). Perceptual constancy with a novel sensory skill. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 47(2), 269-281. https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0000888

Making sense of the world requires perceptual constancy—the stable perception of an object across changes in one’s sensation of it. To investigate whether constancy is intrinsic to perception, we tested whether humans can learn a form of constancy th... Read More about Perceptual constancy with a novel sensory skill.

Stimulus uncertainty affects perception in human echolocation: Timing, level, and spectrum (2020)
Journal Article
Norman, L. J., & Thaler, L. (2020). Stimulus uncertainty affects perception in human echolocation: Timing, level, and spectrum. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 149(12), 2314-2331. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000775

The human brain may use recent sensory experience to create sensory templates that are then compared to incoming sensory input, that is, “knowing what to listen for.” This can lead to greater perceptual sensitivity, as long as the relevant properties... Read More about Stimulus uncertainty affects perception in human echolocation: Timing, level, and spectrum.

Navigation and Perception of Spatial Layout in Virtual Echo-Acoustic Space (2020)
Journal Article
Dodsworth, C., Norman, L., & Thaler, L. (2020). Navigation and Perception of Spatial Layout in Virtual Echo-Acoustic Space. Cognition, 197, Article 104185. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104185

Successful navigation involves finding the way, planning routes, and avoiding collisions. Whilst previous research has shown that people can navigate using non-visual cues, it is not clear to what degree learned non-visual navigational abilities gene... Read More about Navigation and Perception of Spatial Layout in Virtual Echo-Acoustic Space.

Retinotopic-like maps of spatial sound in primary 'visual' cortex of blind human echolocators (2019)
Journal Article
Norman, L., & Thaler, L. (2019). Retinotopic-like maps of spatial sound in primary 'visual' cortex of blind human echolocators. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 286(1912), Article 20191910. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.1910

The functional specializations of cortical sensory areas were traditionally viewed as being tied to specific modalities. A radically different emerging view is that the brain is organized by task rather than sensory modality, but it has not yet been... Read More about Retinotopic-like maps of spatial sound in primary 'visual' cortex of blind human echolocators.

Human echolocation for target detection is more accurate with emissions containing higher spectral frequencies, and this is explained by echo intensity (2018)
Journal Article
Norman, L., & Thaler, L. (2018). Human echolocation for target detection is more accurate with emissions containing higher spectral frequencies, and this is explained by echo intensity. i-Perception, 9(3), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1177/2041669518776984

Humans can learn to use acoustic echoes to detect and classify objects. Echolocators typically use tongue clicks to induce these echoes, and there is some evidence that higher spectral frequency content of an echolocator’s tongue click is associated... Read More about Human echolocation for target detection is more accurate with emissions containing higher spectral frequencies, and this is explained by echo intensity.

Human Echolocation - Spatial Resolution and Signal Properties (2017)
Book Chapter
Norman, L., & Thaler, L. (2017). Human Echolocation - Spatial Resolution and Signal Properties. In A. Balleri, H. Griffiths, & C. Baker (Eds.), Biologically-inspired radar and sonar : lessons from nature (209-227). Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). https://doi.org/10.1049/sbra514e_ch10

This paper will focus on the echolocation abilities of humans, describing the acoustic properties of their emissions as well as the acuity with which they are able to discriminate certain object properties - distance, angle (horizontal and vertical),... Read More about Human Echolocation - Spatial Resolution and Signal Properties.

Texture segmentation without human V4 (2017)
Journal Article
Norman, L., Heywood, C., & Kentridge, R. (2017). Texture segmentation without human V4. Visual Cognition, 25(1-3), 184-195. https://doi.org/10.1080/13506285.2017.1301612

Texture segmentation, or second-order segmentation, is a rapid perceptual process, allowing object and surface boundaries to be effortlessly detected. It is currently unclear whether this is achieved in early cortical areas or whether it necessitates... Read More about Texture segmentation without human V4.

Incidental context information increases recollection (2017)
Journal Article
Ameen-Ali, K., Norman, L., Eacott, M., & Easton, A. (2017). Incidental context information increases recollection. Learning & Memory, 24(3), 136-139. https://doi.org/10.1101/lm.042622.116

The current study describes a receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) task for human participants based on the spontaneous recognition memory paradigms typically used with rodents. Recollection was significantly higher when an object was in the same... Read More about Incidental context information increases recollection.

Direct encoding of orientation variance in the visual system (2015)
Journal Article
Norman, L., Heywood, C., & Kentridge, R. (2015). Direct encoding of orientation variance in the visual system. Journal of Vision, 15(4), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1167/15.4.3

Our perception of regional irregularity, an example of which is orientation variance, seems effortless when we view two patches of texture that differ in this attribute. Little is understood, however, of how the visual system encodes a regional stati... Read More about Direct encoding of orientation variance in the visual system.

Exogenous attention to unseen objects? (2015)
Journal Article
Norman, L., Heywood, C., & Kentridge, R. (2015). Exogenous attention to unseen objects?. Consciousness and Cognition, 35, 319-329. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2015.02.015

Attention and awareness are closely related phenomena, but recent evidence has shown that not all attended stimuli give rise to awareness. Controversy still remains over whether, and the extent to which, a dissociation between attention and awareness... Read More about Exogenous attention to unseen objects?.

Colour constancy for an unseen surface (2014)
Journal Article
Norman, L., Akins, K., Heywood, C., & Kentridge, R. (2014). Colour constancy for an unseen surface. Current Biology, 24(23), 2822-2826. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2014.10.009

The illumination of a scene strongly affects our perception of objects in that scene, e.g., the pages of a book illuminated by candlelight will appear quite yellow relative to other types of artificial illuminants. Yet at the same time, the reader st... Read More about Colour constancy for an unseen surface.

Object-based attention without awareness (2013)
Journal Article
Norman, L. J., Heywood, C. A., & Kentridge, R. W. (2013). Object-based attention without awareness. Psychological Science, 24(6), 836-843. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612461449

Attention and awareness are often considered to be related. Some forms of attention can, however, facilitate the processing of stimuli that remain unseen. It is unclear whether this dissociation extends beyond selection on the basis of primitive prop... Read More about Object-based attention without awareness.