Did you know that people who are born blind do not get schizophrenia?

flannel jesus March 25, 2024 at 16:14 1375 views 6 comments
https://www.psycom.net/blindness-and-schizophrenia#:~:text=This%20might%20blow%20your%20mind,drop%20moment%20for%20brain%20researchers.&text=It's%20a%20phenomenon%20that's%20stumped,ever%20been%20diagnosed%20with%20schizophrenia.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/the-imprinted-brain/201302/why-early-blindness-prevents-schizophrenia

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30539775/

I just learned this today. Some people are saying "There's never been a case of schizophrenia in a person born blind". If that's true... wow. What are the implications? Is our sanity weakened by visual experience?

Comments (6)

AmadeusD March 25, 2024 at 19:01 #890773
Reply to flannel jesus Reducing the inputs of data to a system would probably reduce the instances of possible misfiring. This seems fairly normal inference to me..
flannel jesus March 25, 2024 at 19:10 #890776
Reply to AmadeusD oddly, though, the result only holds for people who are born blind, and not who go blind as adolescents or adults.
Joshs March 25, 2024 at 19:22 #890781
Reply to flannel jesus

Interestingly, there are a preponderance of congenitally blind people with autism. Autism has been considered by some to involve symptoms that are the opposite of schizophrenia, and this has led to the thinking that to reduce schizophrenic cognition, make them more like autistics.This has led some researchers to speculate that congenital blindness predisposes toward styles of cognitive processing that encourages autism and suppresses schizophrenia.
flannel jesus March 25, 2024 at 19:33 #890783
Reply to Joshs really interesting
wonderer1 March 25, 2024 at 20:17 #890793
Quoting Joshs
Interestingly, there are a preponderance of congenitally blind people with autism.


Interesting (and discussed somewhat in the Psychology Today article FJ linked).

Although I seem to have fairly normal vision when it comes to static images, I definitely have a deficit when it comes to detecting the details in dynamic visual events. (Some relevant research.)

So it's perhaps reasonable to think of people on the autism spectrum as being somewhat blind, in the sense of having lower visual processing bandwidth than neurotypicals.
Lionino March 25, 2024 at 21:06 #890812
Quoting Joshs
Autism has been considered by some to involve symptoms that are the opposite of schizophrenia, and this has led to the thinking that to reduce schizophrenic cognition, make them more like autistics.


On that topic, schizophrenics are more likely to be religious (notable example Terry Davis), while autists more likely to be non-spiritual.