**3. Generalization of drawing-learning effects**

While there have been many cross-sectional comparisons of blind and sighted capabilities, the only research focused on *interventions* to enhance basic spatial-cognition abilities in people with blindness has been that based on my Cognitive-Kinesthetic drawing training. This intervention has been shown to improve *spatial memory* and *memory-guided spatiomotor coordination* to a dramatic extent. Although it is typically assumed that drawing is dependent on vision, previous work indicates that individuals with congenital blindness are able to learn to draw over some unspecified time period that often may take years [28–30]. My studies have shown, however, that everyone—blind, sighted, or visually impaired—can learn this skill in only a few hours through an appropriate training, such as the Cognitive-Kinesthetic methodology [3–4, 31–33].

In this chapter, we ask whether the learning effect of this training could extend to the *action* component of the processing *loop* involved. Specifically, can it drive reorganization of motor-

**Figure 2.** Perception-Cognition-Action Loop. Note the inclusion of the *cognition* module as a central mediator into the

Brain Reorganization in Late Adulthood: Rapid Left-to-Right Switch of Handedness…

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.76317

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The participant was a 57-year-old male who had full vision until age of 47, when his vision began declining in one eye and then the other, and he was diagnosed with Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy. Within a year, he was blind, seeing only some light in the far periphery. He had been left-handed since birth. The participant gave informed consent for the experimental protocol, which was approved by the Smith-Kettlewell Institutional Review Board as in full

After only a total of 10 hours of the Cognitive-Kinesthetic Drawing Training (2 hours/day for 5 days [3]), this left-handed blind participant learned to develop detailed and robust *memory representations* of *haptically* explored (with the *preferred/left* hand) raised-line depictions of complex images, such as human faces and objects, in order to draw them with his *nonpreferred/right* hand. Thus, in order to generate the structured motor output of the drawing, he had to learn how to use these enhanced haptic memory representations to *replace* his *lost "eye-hand coordination"* by a *"memory-hand coordination"* mechanism now that he was blind.

In the process, this blind participant learned to *draw freely* with his *non-preferred/right* hand, guided *solely* by the haptic memory acquired with the other hand. This man had never been able to draw well even with his preferred/left hand while still sighted, so he and his family

*I never could draw very well … That's why it's very interesting to me that I would've been the person that did not have drawing skills before, and to be able to do something like this now .., wow, it is exciting - you have thought me drawing better than I could when I could see … and - to do this with my right hand …!.*

architecture for *switching handedness*?

traditional perception-action loop [4].

**5. Methods and procedures**

**5.1. Participant and the Cognitive-Kinesthetic Training**

conformance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

were greatly surprised by this successful outcome.

I have further hypothesized that the improvements from the Cognitive-Kinesthetic training would *transfer*, or—*generalize,* to a wide range of *untrained* basic spatial-cognition abilities that extend well beyond the drawing task *per se* [6]. "Basic" abilities were conceptualized as those that are foundational to other tasks, such as the ability to perceive, and remember object features, textures, spatial configurations, and patterns, together with abilities for spatial analysis and new concept learning. My rationale for this *transfer of learning*, or *Generalization of Learning,* hypothesis derived from the fact that the act of drawing complex images from memory "orchestrates" multiple spatial-cognition abilities [2–3, 31–33]. A recent study confirmed my Generalization of Learning Hypothesis [34] by showing significant improvements in a large standardized battery of untrained cognitive tests [35–36] for the blind and low vision following the 10 hours of Cognitive-Kinesthetic training in a cohort of congenitally blind and severe low-vision participants.
