What is the dream experience for a person born deaf blind?
May 30, 2006 7:59 PM
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Does a person born deaf blind experience dreams?
My curiousity has always wondered if a person who is born deaf blind has the ability to experience dream? What would dreaming be like if you never have been able to see or hear anything around you. Is a dream a purely visual thing for us sighted ones? Any research sites or personal stories on this topic?
posted by randomthoughts to religion & philosophy (12 comments total)
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Dreaming is a side effect of maintenance activities which take place in the brain while we sleep. Dreaming is the subjective experience, but it's also a side effect. I think that the best guess right now is that what's really going on is maintenance of long term memory.
People who are deaf and blind from birth still need that brain activity to take place, so there will still be some sort of dream-like operation happening, and it will be experienced subjectively by the person while they sleep. But since their memories are different, so will be the dreams.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 8:04 PM on May 30, 2006