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Re:When Blind People Do Algebra, the Brain's Visual Areas Li... by Practicality on Tuesday September 20, 2016 @10:55AM (#12539977)
Except that the article says sighted people do not have an increase in that area when doing algebra.

I tend to agree with the premise of the article, which is brain areas can be reapportioned for different tasks.

Re:When Blind People Do Algebra, the Brain's Visual Areas Li... by rorykoehler on Tuesday September 20, 2016 @11:09AM (#12540085)
I'm pretty sure that I engage the visual part of my brain in those moments when I truly understand algebra. It's very beautifully overwhelming and understanding such complex mathematics through visualisation brings about one of the few moments where I get naturally high through cognitive tasks.

I wouldn't consider myself a very visual person otherwise.

Re:When Blind People Do Algebra, the Brain's Visual Areas Li... by JadeNB on Tuesday September 20, 2016 @11:28AM (#12540249)
> I'm pretty sure that I engage the visual part of my brain in those moments when I truly understand algebra.

With no offence meant to your self knowledge, and with the understanding that you were probably not one of those tested and that our (meaning their, I guess) understanding of the workings of the brain is imperfect, I think that the point of brain imaging software is in large part so that we don't have to rely on "I'm pretty sure", and indeed can have confidence even in unintuitive conclusions.

Re:When Blind People Do Algebra, the Brain's Visual Areas Li... by throwaway7767 on Tuesday September 20, 2016 @12:07PM (#12540577)
> With no offence meant to your self knowledge, and with the understanding that you were probably not one of those tested and that our (meaning their, I guess) understanding of the workings of the brain is imperfect, I think that the point of brain imaging software is in large part so that we don't have to rely on "I'm pretty sure", and indeed can have confidence even in unintuitive conclusions.

Self-knowledge is not a good way to divine the functioning of the brain. However, one could say fMRI is not a good way either, at the very least studies based solely on fMRI data should be taken with a boatload of salt. See for example: http://www.pnas.org/content/113/28/7900.full

> Functional MRI (fMRI) is 25 years old, yet surprisingly its most common statistical methods have not been validated using real data. Here, we used resting-state fMRI data from 499 healthy controls to conduct 3 million task group analyses. Using this null data with different experimental designs, we estimate the incidence of significant results. In theory, we should find 5% false positives (for a significance threshold of 5%), but instead we found that the most common software packages for fMRI analysis (SPM, FSL, AFNI) can result in false-positive rates of up to 70%. These results question the validity of a number of fMRI studies and may have a large impact on the interpretation of weakly significant neuroimaging results.

Re:When Blind People Do Algebra, the Brain's Visual Areas Li... by DavidWanjiru on Tuesday September 20, 2016 @02:13PM (#12541813)
This comment reminds me of high school physics, when we were learning about interference and those double slit experiments. The teacher would give different scenarios and ask us to predict what patterns would be observed. In one, the pattern was alternating bands of dark and light. I was the only kid who could figure it out, and the physics teacher was so visibly impressed, he to started calling me the thinker. That thing, visualizing something given to you in mathematical form, feels very good indeed.
Re:When Blind People Do Algebra, the Brain's Visual Areas Li... by eric_h on Tuesday September 20, 2016 @03:38PM (#12542617)
> That thing, visualizing something given to you in mathematical form, feels very good indeed

I agree completely. I still remember the feeling I got when I was able to visualize differential equations in relation to "normal" calculus. It completely changed the way I thought about math.

Re:When Blind People Do Algebra, the Brain's Visual Areas Li... by Practicality on Tuesday September 20, 2016 @11:46AM (#12540404)
It's possible. That would still fit the general premise that people can "rewire" their own brains through use. One of the leading theories of Synesthesia is that different areas of the brain are not separated: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neural_basis_of_synesthesia#Cr...

It would follow that it is possible that they could then be rejoined as well.

Re:When Blind People Do Algebra, the Brain's Visual Areas Li... by bpchaps on Tuesday September 20, 2016 @12:04PM (#12540549)
I'm the same way and came to a similar conclusion a while back. For me, understanding math has been an incredibly visual process more than anything. It's a very useful heuristic. Programming is similar, but its discreteness seems to make it significantly less visual.
Re:When Blind People Do Algebra, the Brain's Visual Areas Li... by rads on Tuesday September 20, 2016 @01:25PM (#12541236)
While I understand that "programming is not visual" is a common point of view, I strongly disagree with it. See here:

http://worrydream.com/LearnableProgramming/

Re:When Blind People Do Algebra, the Brain's Visual Areas Li... by bpchaps on Tuesday September 20, 2016 @05:53PM (#12543735)
I should clarify - it absolutely is visual. Just less so than pure maths.
Re:When Blind People Do Algebra, the Brain's Visual Areas Li... by Jcol1 on Tuesday September 20, 2016 @04:13PM (#12542949)
Can you describe what exactly happens/feels/what is this visualization of the mathematics?
Re:When Blind People Do Algebra, the Brain's Visual Areas Li... by empath75 on Tuesday September 20, 2016 @12:01PM (#12540532)
I wonder if sighted people have so much activity in that area all the time that the noise drowns it out.
Re:When Blind People Do Algebra, the Brain's Visual Areas Li... by posterboy on Tuesday September 20, 2016 @12:09PM (#12540602)
Talk about double blind testing.