Early Blindness Shown to Affect Musical Ability
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Children who go blind at a very young age develop musical abilities that are measurably better than those who lose their sight later in life or retain full vision, according to a new study.
Scientists at the University of Montreal have found that blind people are up to 10 times better at discerning pitch changes than the sighted -- but only when they went blind before the age of 2. The research, published in the journal Nature, attributed the clear differences in performance to brain plasticity, the formative period when the infant brain is akin to a sponge and soaking up all sorts of stimuli.
