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Dr Lore Thaler's Outputs (55)

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.

Multisensory perception and decision-making with a new sensory skill (2023)
Journal Article
Negen, J., Bird, L., Slater, H., Thaler, L., & Nardini, M. (2023). Multisensory perception and decision-making with a new sensory skill. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 49(5), 600-622. https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0001114

It is clear that people can learn a new sensory skill – a new way of mapping sensory inputs onto world states. It remains unclear how flexibly a new sensory skill can become embedded in multisensory perception and decision-making. To address this, we... Read More about Multisensory perception and decision-making with a new sensory skill.

6-hour Training in click-based echolocation changes practice in visual impairment professionals (2023)
Journal Article
Thaler, L., Di Gregorio, G., & Foresteire, D. (online). 6-hour Training in click-based echolocation changes practice in visual impairment professionals. Frontiers in Rehabilitation Sciences, 4, https://doi.org/10.3389/fresc.2023.1098624

Click-based echolocation can support mobility and orientation in people with vision impairments (VI) when used alongside other mobility methods. Only a small number of people with VI use click-based echolocation. Previous research about echolocation... Read More about 6-hour Training in click-based echolocation changes practice in visual impairment professionals.

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.

The flexible Action System: Click-based Echolocation may replace certain visual Functionality for adaptive Walking (2019)
Journal Article
Thaler, L., Zhang, X., Antoniou, M., Kish, D., & Cowie, D. (2020). The flexible Action System: Click-based Echolocation may replace certain visual Functionality for adaptive Walking. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 46(1), 21-35. https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0000697

People use sensory, in particular visual, information to guide actions such as walking around obstacles, grasping or reaching. However, it is presently unclear how malleable the sensorimotor system is. The present study investigated this by measuring... Read More about The flexible Action System: Click-based Echolocation may replace certain visual Functionality for adaptive Walking.

Sensory Cue Combination in Children Under 10 Years of Age (2019)
Journal Article
Negen, J., Chere, B., Bird, L., Taylor, E., Roome, H., Keenaghan, S., Thaler, L., & Nardini, M. (2019). Sensory Cue Combination in Children Under 10 Years of Age. Cognition, 193, Article 104014. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104014

Cue combination occurs when two independent noisy perceptual estimates are merged together as a weighted average, creating a unified estimate that is more precise than either single estimate alone. Surprisingly, this effect has not been demonstrated... Read More about Sensory Cue Combination in Children Under 10 Years of Age.

Human Click-Based Echolocation of Distance: Superfine Acuity and Dynamic Clicking Behaviour (2019)
Journal Article
Thaler, L., De Vos, H., Kish, D., Antoniou, M., Baker, C., & Hornikx, M. (2019). Human Click-Based Echolocation of Distance: Superfine Acuity and Dynamic Clicking Behaviour. Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, 20(5), 499-510. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10162-019-00728-0

Some people who are blind have trained themselves in echolocation using mouth clicks. Here, we provide the first report of psychophysical and clicking data during echolocation of distance from a group of 8 blind people with experience in mouth click-... Read More about Human Click-Based Echolocation of Distance: Superfine Acuity and Dynamic Clicking Behaviour.

Bayes-Like Integration of a New Sensory Skill with Vision (2018)
Journal Article
Negen, J., Wen, L., Thaler, L., & Nardini, M. (2018). Bayes-Like Integration of a New Sensory Skill with Vision. Scientific Reports, 8, Article 16880. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-35046-7

Humans are effective at dealing with noisy, probabilistic information in familiar settings. One hallmark of this is Bayesian Cue Combination: combining multiple noisy estimates to increase precision beyond the best single estimate, taking into accoun... Read More about Bayes-Like Integration of a New Sensory Skill with Vision.

Psychophysical and neuroimaging responses to moving stimuli in a patient with the Riddoch phenomenon due to bilateral visual cortex lesions (2018)
Journal Article
Arcaro, M. J., Thaler, L., Quinlan, D. J., Monaco, S., Khan, S., Valyear, K. F., Goebel, R., Dutton, G. N., Goodale, M. A., Kastner, S., & Culham, J. C. (2019). Psychophysical and neuroimaging responses to moving stimuli in a patient with the Riddoch phenomenon due to bilateral visual cortex lesions. Neuropsychologia, 128, 150-165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.05.008

Patients with injury to early visual cortex or its inputs can display the Riddoch phenomenon: preserved awareness for moving but not stationary stimuli. We provide a detailed case report of a patient with the Riddoch phenomenon, MC. MC has extensive... Read More about Psychophysical and neuroimaging responses to moving stimuli in a patient with the Riddoch phenomenon due to bilateral visual cortex lesions.