Analyzing the amplification of touch sense in visually impaired individuals and comparison with normal individuals

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundIt has been said for ages that if a person loses one of the basic senses like sight or hearing, other senses are amplified to make up for it. This has been substantially proved without a doubt that amplification helps the specially-abled individual in their day-to-day life to an extent. These increases are present but have not been quantified and measured on how much the increases are present.Aim1)To estimate and compare sensitivity of touch between visually impaired and normal people and analyze the amplification if present.MethodologyA Cross-Sectional Case-control Study was carried out. Individuals with 6/6 vision and normal in other senses were first examined with the Static Two-point discrimination test to have a baseline value and then different categories of visually impaired individuals were subjected to this test. The test was carried out on the forehead and fingertips of all subjects. Their results were compared using different statistical tools.ResultsTotal 45 visually impaired individuals with various severity of blindness with 20 Normal individuals taken for the study. Two-point discrimination values for normal individuals (Fingertip=3.43±1.519,Forehead=13.531±2.364), whereas for all and any type of visually impaired individual (fingertip=2.83±0.27,Forehead=13.08±0.26)is statistically(Fingertip, p=0.0101)(Forehead, p=0.4461).R-value for time spent since the disability and degree of amplification is -0.356.ConclusionA significant difference is present between the values of test between visually impaired and normal individuals. Appreciable that with various degrees of blindness, the average values of two-point-discrimination value are different. Totally blind shows the highest sensitivity.