Karim A K M Rezaul, Likova Lora T
The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, 2318 Fillmore St, San Francisco, CA 94115, USA.
Envision Research Institute, 610 N Main St, Wichita, KS 67203, USA.
IS&T Int Symp Electron Imaging. 2018;2018. doi: 10.2352/ISSN.2470-1173.2018.14.HVEI-532.
Understanding perception and aesthetic appeal of arts and environmental objects, what is appreciated, liked, or preferred, and why, is of prime importance for improving the functional capacity of the blind and visually impaired and the ergonomic design for their environment, which however so far, has been examined only in sighted individuals. This paper provides a general overview of the first experimental study of tactile aesthetics as a function of visual experience and level of visual deprivation, using both behavioral and brain imaging techniques. We investigated how blind people perceive 3D tactile objects, how they characterize them, and whether the tactile perception, and tactile shape preference (liking or disliking) and tactile aesthetic appreciation (judging tactile qualities of an object, such as pleasantness, comfortableness etc.) of 3D tactile objects can be affected by the level of visual experience. The study employed innovative behavioral measures, such as new forms of aesthetic preference-appreciation and perceptual discrimination questionnaires, in combination with advanced functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) techniques, and compared congenitally blind, late-onset blind and blindfolded (sighted) participants. Behavioral results demonstrated that both blind and blindfolded-sighted participants assessed curved or rounded 3D tactile objects as significantly more pleasing than sharp 3D tactile objects, and symmetric 3D tactile objects as significantly more pleasing than asymmetric 3D tactile objects. However, as compared to the sighted, blind people showed better skills in tactile discrimination as demonstrated by accuracy and speed of discrimination. Functional MRI results demonstrated that there was a large overlap and characteristic differences in the aesthetic appreciation brain networks in the blind and the sighted. As demonstrated both populations commonly recruited the somatosensory and motor areas of the brain, but with stronger activations in the blind as compared to the sighted. Secondly, sighted people recruited more frontal regions whereas blind people, in particular, the congenitally blind, paradoxically recruited more 'visual' areas of the brain. These differences were more pronounced between the sighted and the congenitally blind rather than between the sighted and the late-onset blind, indicating the key influence of the onset time of visual deprivation. Understanding of the underlying brain mechanisms should have a wide range of important implications for a generalized cross-sensory theory and practice in the rapidly evolving field of neuroaesthetics, as well as for 'cutting-edge' rehabilitation technologies for the blind and the visually impaired.
了解艺术和环境物体的感知与审美吸引力，即人们欣赏、喜欢或偏爱的是什么以及原因，对于提高盲人和视力受损者的功能能力以及为其环境进行符合人体工程学的设计至关重要，然而到目前为止，这仅在有视力的个体中进行过研究。本文概述了第一项关于触觉美学作为视觉体验和视觉剥夺程度函数的实验研究，该研究使用了行为和脑成像技术。我们调查了盲人如何感知三维触觉物体，他们如何对其进行表征，以及三维触觉物体的触觉感知、触觉形状偏好（喜欢或不喜欢）和触觉审美欣赏（判断物体的触觉品质，如愉悦感、舒适度等）是否会受到视觉体验程度的影响。该研究采用了创新的行为测量方法，如新型的审美偏好 - 欣赏和感知辨别问卷，并结合先进的功能磁共振成像（fMRI）技术，对先天性盲人、迟发性盲人以及蒙眼（有视力）的参与者进行了比较。行为结果表明，盲人和蒙眼有视力的参与者都认为弯曲或圆润的三维触觉物体比尖锐的三维触觉物体更令人愉悦，对称的三维触觉物体比不对称的三维触觉物体更令人愉悦。然而，与有视力的人相比，盲人在触觉辨别方面表现出更好的技能，这体现在辨别准确性和速度上。功能磁共振成像结果表明，盲人和有视力的人在审美欣赏脑网络方面存在大量重叠和特征差异。结果表明，这两类人群通常都会激活大脑的体感和运动区域，但与有视力的人相比，盲人的激活更强。其次，有视力的人激活更多的额叶区域，而盲人，尤其是先天性盲人，反常地激活更多大脑的“视觉”区域。这些差异在有视力的人和先天性盲人之间比在有视力的人和迟发性盲人之间更为明显，表明视觉剥夺开始时间的关键影响。对潜在脑机制的理解对于神经美学快速发展领域中的广义跨感觉理论与实践，以及针对盲人和视力受损者的“前沿”康复技术具有广泛的重要意义。
