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The persistence of remote visual semantic memory following ocular blindness
Connor D Dietz1, Manuela Malaspina1, Andrea Albonico1
1Human Vision and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Medicine (Neurology) and Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Neuropsychologia
|December 10, 2021
Summary
Visual semantic memory persists long-term in acquired blindness, but facial memories may fade. Congenital blindness impacts visual memory, though some information is accessible via non-visual senses.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Ophthalmology
Background:
- Visual semantic memory's long-term durability is largely unknown.
- Studying individuals with varying degrees of blindness offers unique insights.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the long-term retention of visual semantic memory in individuals with acquired blindness.
- To compare memory performance between acquired blindness, congenital blindness, and sighted controls.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional study involving 11 acquired blindness, 4 congenital blindness, and 17 sighted control subjects.
- Administered forced-choice questionnaires across auditory and visual (object properties, text, faces) categories.
- Assessed performance relative to chance and control groups.
Main Results:
- Congenital blindness group performed worse on all visual categories than controls.
- Acquired blindness group performed similarly to controls, except for facial memory.
- Facial memory, particularly features, was significantly impaired in acquired blindness.
Conclusions:
- A substantial "permastore" of visual semantic memory exists, even after prolonged acquired blindness.
- Facial memories appear less durable than other visual semantic memories.
- Facial memory decline may stem from reduced over-learning or greater reliance on visual representations.
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