Blind people sense their heartbeats better than sighted

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This study was part of a larger collaborative effort between two research groups interested in bodily awareness and brain plasticity following blindness. Across several experiments, we investigate a topic virtually unexplored by both research communities: how blind individuals perceive their own bodies. We examine the ability to perceive internal bodily sensations, the perception of pleasant touch, and the processes underlying combination of information from multiple senses, in order to provide the first detailed description of differences and similarities between blind and sighted individuals in various aspects of bodily perception.

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