April 14, 2011 
Researchers have solved a three-centuries-old mystery about the human perception, which confused philosophers and scientists…
The question was whether a person blind from birth who suddenly regained their sight could distinguish a cube from a sphere. This question was set up 323 years ago to a famous British thinker John Locke by an Irish politician, William Molyneux, and it has not had an empirical answer until now.
For philosophers from Molyneux’s time it was a question whose answer would solve some fundamental concerns about the human mind, according to news.com.au. Some have argued that the human brain at birth is like a “blank book” and that it is filled with life experiences. Others argued that the human mind is from the beginning full of predetermined ideas just waiting to be activated by sight, sound, or touch.
However, recent scientific studies have shown that the mental images that are accumulated by sight and touch, in fact, accumulate in the same place in the brain and are activated by either of these two senses. However, so far nobody has managed to prove this in practice; the problem was finding adequate examinees. The candidates should be blind since birth, of sufficient age and their vision should be restored by operation.
Perfect Candidates
Since most of the disease of congenital blindness is discovered and treated during early childhood, finding the appropriate candidates for testing is a real rarity. However, five of them with relevant predispositions were found in India and the experiment was conducted by Professor Pawan Sinha, in cooperation with the Shroff Charity Eye Hospital in New Delhi.
Sinha found five suitable candidates – four boys and one girl aged between eight and 17 years. They underwent the operation that restored their vision, and when the experts made sure that the patients can see again the experiment could begin.
An interesting result
Using objects, which are similar to Lego cubs, the researchers created a sphere and a cube. The cured patients without defects could distinguish one from another with even 100 percent accuracy, just by looking which is a sphere and which a cube. They had almost as good results when they could use only the sense of touch. Yet in a key test in which these children were asked to distinguish between other objects visually after only one contact with them, the test results were only slightly better than for example guessing randomly.
The results of this study showed that the human brain is more susceptible to ‘formation’ in childhood than it was previously thought and that a child born blind may not necessarily be without visual perception.
Taken from: www.dnevnik.hr