Researchers from Durham and York universities have demonstrated that humans can pick up echolocation, a way to navigate by interpreting echoes, in a relatively short period. This skill, long observed in bats and dolphins, was showcased in a study published in the Cerebral Cortex journal.
The study highlights echolocation as a remarkable example of the brain adapting to new tasks. It also points to potential benefits for individuals with visual impairments who rely on non-visual senses for navigation.
The experiment recruited 26 participants, including 12 blind and 14 sighted individuals, all with no prior echolocation experience. Over ten weeks, participants engaged in a structured training program comprising twenty sessions. Each session lasted two to three hours and featured tasks such as distinguishing object size, perceiving orientation, and steering through virtual mazes using echolocation cues.
In addition to lab tasks, volunteers practiced navigating real environments under the supervision of scientists, integrating echolocation into everyday contexts. Brain activity and structure were monitored with MRI scans taken before and after training, focusing on primary sensory regions such as the visual cortex (V1) and the auditory cortex (A1).
Across the board, sighted and blind participants showed meaningful improvements in echolocation performance across all tasks. For instance, the average time to solve virtual mazes dropped from 104.1 seconds to 40.9 seconds among sighted participants and from 137.0 seconds to 57.23 seconds among blind participants, underscoring the training’s effectiveness.
MRI analyses revealed notable shifts in brain activity after training. In the visual cortex (V1), both groups displayed heightened responses to echo sounds post-training, with significant changes observed in both the left and right V1 when comparing echoing versus non-echoing conditions. This finding illustrates the brain’s capacity to repurpose a primary visual region to process auditory echo information when needed.
Researchers were surprised by the speed at which the visual cortex adapted to sound, even among individuals who had never experienced vision. The results suggest a remarkable level of neural plasticity that can support new sensory strategies well into adulthood.
Beyond V1, whole-brain analyses showed increased activation in areas linked to attention and spatial processing, including the superior parietal lobule, the frontal cortex, and the inferior parietal lobule. These changes imply that echolocation training strengthens not only basic sensory processing but also higher-order cognitive functions essential for spatial navigation and focused attention.
The findings provide a compelling view of how the brain reorganizes itself through purposeful practice. They also raise important questions about how such training could be integrated into rehabilitation programs for people with vision loss, potentially offering a practical path to greater independence and orientation in everyday life.
Overall, the study illustrates a clear link between targeted perceptual training, behavioral improvement, and measurable brain changes. It demonstrates that human perception can extend beyond its conventional boundaries when supported by structured, repeated practice and careful instruction, with meaningful implications for neuroscience and assistive technology alike.