From error to evidence: blindsight in the making†

Blindsight is often described as a chronic ability in which stimuli within a cortically blind field guide behavior without reported awareness. Because most studies examine established deficits, spontaneous recovery, practice, and compensation may already have reshaped performance. Sepe et al. instead assessed visuomotor behavior 3 to 4 weeks after unilateral V1 damage in 2 macaques. Normal saccades to blind-field targets were rare, but responses were structured: temporal cueing increased delayed, inaccurate, and multistep eye movements, while catch trials showed bias toward the scotoma border. These errors indicate residual but poorly calibrated visuomotor processing, consistent with early reweighting of V1-independent circuits, and may inform longitudinal studies and early rehabilitation.