gallowcalibrator:

3X4CTLY R1GHT ROS3, NOT TH4T 1M SUPR1S3D! H3H3! B31NG BL1ND M34NS TH4T YOU C4NT S33! BUT 3V3N THOUGH NON3 OF OUR FOUR 3Y3S WORK W3 S33 JUST F1N3…W3LL NOT *JUST* F1N3, BUT YOU KNOW WH4T 1 M34N! 4R3 B4TS BORN TH4T W4Y, ROS3? NOT B31NG 4BL3 TO S33 4LL TH4T W3LL? 1 WOULD 4SK GOOGL3, BUT 1 3NJOY T4LK1NG TO YOU MOR3! W3LL 4ND GOOGL3 1S NOT V3RY 4CC3PT1NG OF MY QU1RK >;[

Y3S! TH4T SOUNDS L1K3 4 WOND3RFUL PL4N >:] 3V3N THOUGH 1 H4V3 NO 1D34 WH4T TH4T M4CH1N3 1S OR DO3S, BUT 1 B3T 1TS H3LL4 COOL! H44H4H!

THOUGH S33R OF BR41N *DO3S* SOUND V3RY COOL, 1T SOUNDS 4 B1T L1K3 1 M1GHT B3 4 M3MB3R OF TH3 UND34D! 4HHH TH3 S33R OF BR41N 1S COM1NG TO G3T YOU B4RB4R4! H3H3H3H3!

1S 4NYTH1NG N3W W1TH YOU S1NC3 W3 L4ST T4LK3D, ROS3?

I’m unsure if you’ve heard of Helen Keller, a famous 19th-century deafblind activist, but she had a rather famous quote, that, while trite, I believe holds true in this circumstance.  She said that the only thing worse than being blind was having sight and no vision.  I think that’s necessarily reductive, but I think that both of us have a great deal of vision.

As for the bats, yes, they are born with relatively poorly-functioning eyes, at least the kind which I’m using as an example.  Fruit bats have quite good and acute color eyesight, whereas the insect-eating bats have much more rudimentary eyesight that only distinguishes between light and dark and rough shapes, relying on their sense of hearing to allow them to navigate more acutely.

The fMRI measures brain activity by detecting shifts in blood flow in the brain, which it maps on a 2- or 3-dimensional map of the brain.  By applying our knowledge of neuroanatomy, we can determine roughly how a person is using their brain to think of things.

So it does.  I’d merely ask that you leave my brain intact, thank you very much.

Hmm…new?  I’ve been working with a professor lately on a program that would allow us to use an electromechanical refreshable display to represent the brain activity detected by fMRI machines, since so far I’ve had to have someone describe every image to me, and I feel that that can sometimes be unhelpful or not helpful enough.  It may take a while to design, but I think it could help a great deal of visually impaired students grasp the concept, especially if they’ve been blind since birth.