Audiospatial cognitive ability of visually impaired athletes in static and dynamic spatial cognitive tasks.
Kotomi Shiota, Akane Tokui
PMID 29200640WHAT IT FOUND
Blind athletes did not locate sounds better than sighted subjects in static tasks.
In dynamic tasks, they had smaller errors to the left. The groups were small, so this is not evidence of a training benefit.
Key findings
01In the static task, error angles did not differ between blind athletes and sighted subjects.
02In the dynamic task, blind athletes had smaller leftward error than sighted subjects (17.7° and 37.4°).
03In both groups, the largest error was in the leftward direction.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The blind athlete group had six men and three women, and the sighted group had four men and three women, so group differences may reflect chance. The blind athletes varied in diagnosis, severity, age at diagnosis, and sport history, which may affect sound localization. Both groups were students at the testing center and had used the gymnasium before, so familiarity with the space may have influenced performance. The study did not assess binaural hearing balance or the mechanisms behind left-right errors. It compared existing groups and did not test training, so it cannot show that any therapy improves spatial cognition.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that blind athletes have better audiospatial cognition overall or that training caused the difference. They were not different in the static task, and the only significant between-group difference was in the dynamic leftward task. This was a small comparison of existing groups, not a training trial.