D.B. (blindsight patient)
From Psy3242
Blindsight overview
Blindsight is the condition in which a person is able to respond to a visual stimulus without consciously perceiving it. The visual cortex, also called V1 or the striate cortex, receives input from the retina which makes visual discrimination possible. When V1 is removed, however, it is sometimes still possible to make "visual" discriminations because the input from the retina travels through other areas in the brain, which may also be the reason this phenomenon occurs. [1]
Origin of D.B.'s blindsight
D.B. is the first and most intensively studied case of blindsight. D.B.'s blindsight was caused not by brain damage but by the removal of a non-malignant tumor from his right visual cortex at the age of 26 which subsequently left him unable to detect things in his left visual field. [2]
Weisenkrantz and Warrington study
Psychologists L. Weisenkrantz and Elizabeth Warrington first began studying D.B. in 1973.
