Blindness is just another way of seeing | Lotfi Merabet | TEDxCambridge

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Blindness has nothing to do with living in the dark. Behind eyes that don’t see is a brain that does see. In fact, blind people use the same visual centers of the brain that sighted people do, and can teach us more about the brain than we think, says Lotfi Merabet.

Lotfi Merabet is a neuroscientist investigating how the brain adapts to blindness. He completed his PhD in neuroscience from the University of Montréal and clinical doctorate in optometry from the New England College of Optometry followed by post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School, Boston University, and the MGH Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging. He also obtained his Master’s degree in Public Health from Harvard University. In 2010, he joined the faculty of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary as a clinician-scientist and is currently the Director of the Laboratory for Visual Neuroplasticity and Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School. His work is supported by the National Institutes of Health/National Eye Institute and he serves on the Board of Directors and Trustees for the Carroll Center for the Blind and the National Braille Press.

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