Hey there! Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have superpowers? Well, Joe recently tried something that made him feel like he did, and you can try it too! But first, let’s meet Molly Burke, a blind YouTuber who navigates the world in a fascinating way.
Molly was diagnosed with a rare genetic disease called retinitis pigmentosa when she was just four years old. This condition gradually took away her vision, and by the age of 14, she was mostly blind. But that hasn’t stopped her from living an amazing life with her guide dog, Gallop, by her side.
When Molly was seven, she started learning something called passive echolocation. This involves paying attention to the sounds around us. Our world is full of noise, but we often ignore most of it. Molly learned to use these sounds to navigate her environment, even without seeing it.
Animals like bats and dolphins use echolocation too. They send out sounds, like clicks, and listen for the echoes that bounce back. This helps them “see” their surroundings using sound waves. Molly has mastered passive echolocation, but she wanted to learn active echolocation, which involves making sounds to get clearer echoes.
Enter Brian Bushway, a master echolocator from a nonprofit called Visioneers. Brian teaches people how to use active echolocation, and he believes anyone who can hear can learn it. Active echolocation is like an upgraded version of passive echolocation. By making a clicking sound with your tongue, you can create a mental map of your surroundings.
Brian explains that our brains are incredibly adaptable, a concept known as neuroplasticity. This means our brains can change and learn new things, even as we get older. For blind people, their brains often become better at processing sound, which is why they can excel at echolocation.
Brian showed Molly and Joe how to use echolocation by making different sounds and listening to the echoes. They practiced using a “shhhh” sound and a tongue click to detect objects around them. It was amazing to see how quickly they could identify where things were, just by listening!
They also learned about sound shadows and how different surfaces create different echoes. For example, a hollow bowl makes a distinct sound that can help identify doorways or entryways.
Through practice, Molly and Joe discovered how echolocation can help them understand their environment better. Molly was even able to tell where objects were in a room just by listening to the echoes. This skill can be incredibly useful, especially in crowded places where other tools like canes or guide dogs might not work as well.
Brian and the Visioneers team are helping people discover new ways to experience the world. Echolocation isn’t just about listening; it’s about using our brains to create a map of our surroundings. Studies have shown that blind echolocators can activate parts of their brains associated with vision, even without seeing anything.
For Molly, learning echolocation has opened up new possibilities. She dreams of riding a bike or skateboarding on her own, using echolocation to guide her. It’s a reminder that our brains are capable of amazing things, and we can always learn and adapt.
Joe realized that his perception of blindness was missing something. Echolocation showed him a rich sensory experience that he had been ignoring. It’s not about losing something; it’s about gaining a new way to understand the world.
So, if you’re curious and want to learn more, check out Molly’s channel for more insights into her life and the science of echolocation. And remember, there’s always something new to discover!
Explore your surroundings by using only your sense of hearing. Close your eyes and have a friend guide you to different locations. Try to identify objects or areas based on the sounds you hear. This will help you understand how echolocation works by focusing on sound cues.
Using simple materials like cardboard tubes and rubber bands, create a basic echolocation device. Experiment with making different sounds and observe how they change when directed at various surfaces. This activity will help you understand how sound waves interact with objects.
Work in pairs to map out a small area using sound. One person makes clicking sounds while the other records the echoes and distances. Compare your sound map with the actual layout to see how accurately you can “see” with sound. This will enhance your understanding of active echolocation.
Invite a local musician or sound engineer to your class to discuss how they use sound in their work. Prepare questions about how they perceive sound and any techniques they use that relate to echolocation. This will give you a broader perspective on the importance of sound in different fields.
Set up various objects around a room and use a sound source, like a small speaker, to observe how sound shadows are created. Move around the objects and note how the sound changes. This will help you understand how different surfaces affect sound waves and create echoes.
**Sanitized Transcript:**
**Brian:** “It’s a high-pressure stakes game here… [laughing]” You’re probably wondering how I ended up in this situation… and why I’m walking around blindfolded making weird noises.
Hey smart people, Joe here. Recently, I got to try something that made me feel like I basically had superpowers. And you can do it too, at home. But before we get there, you need to meet my new friend, Molly Burke.
**Joe:** So, I met you a couple of months ago and immediately became fascinated with this guy.
**Molly:** He’s my guide dog, Gallop! So when I was four years old, I was diagnosed with a rare genetic disease called retinitis pigmentosa. Slowly over time, I went blind. I lost the majority of my vision when I was 14, which was in 2008. Despite the fact that I still look 14, I am now 25, and I’m a blind YouTuber now.
**Joe:** You navigate the world in a really special way that totally blew my mind when we met. Tell us about it.
**Molly:** When I was seven years old, I started taking orientation and mobility training. That included passive echolocation. I learned how to pay attention to the sounds that exist already. We live in a really loud world. We don’t usually notice every sound because most of our brains are constantly tuning out what’s not important. There’s so much noise out there; we have to be able to filter that information so it doesn’t sound like a jumbled mess. But imagine being able to pick out any one sound and use only that sound to navigate any environment, even one you’ve never been in before.
As a sighted person, this seems impossible, and honestly like a good way to hurt yourself. But with the help of a teacher in her orientation and mobility program, Molly learned how to do it.
**Molly:** So the way she would train me is she would blindfold me, put me on the sidewalk (with my cane, of course), and I would walk down the sidewalk and she would have me count trees. The best way I can explain it is there’s sound, and then there’s a lack of sound. But really, a lack of sound still makes noise.
**Joe:** Wow.
**Molly:** We call them sound shadows. It’s like there’s a whole world that sighted people aren’t aware of. And that got me wondering, can anyone learn echolocation? Well, we’re about to put my ears to the test.
Echolocation is used by tons of different animals, from whales to bats, to birds – even small shrews can do it. The species that are the best at it use active echolocation, the same way that sonar works on ships. Instead of just listening, they first send out a sound, like a click. Those sound waves sweep through the environment, and if they hit something, they bounce back. By reading these echoes, the brain can actually form a mental map.
The time between when the sound is made and when it bounces back helps the brain calculate things like distance, and the quality of the sound bouncing back can even carry information like an object’s texture or hardness. So I’ve always wanted to learn active echolocation, but I’ve only been trained in passive echolocation.
Funny you should mention that, Molly! Because we have a surprise for you.
**Joe:** Molly?
**Molly:** Yes?
**Joe:** I told you I had a surprise for you…
**Molly:** YES!?
**Joe:** I have a guest here with us. I have Brian Bushway walking in with me.
**Molly:** Hello!
**Brian:** Hello, Molly! I work with a nonprofit called Visioneers. I’m a master echolocator. I use active echolocation like all those other animals we mentioned. I teach it too. And I assure you that with some practice, anyone who can hear can do this.
Active echolocation is just passive echolocation – what you’ve already been using – at a more enhanced level. So whether we send the brain patterns of light, which is vision, or patterns of sound, the brain will still construct an image. Speaking of the brain, there’s an old idea that when you reach a certain age, your brain freezes and it’s always going to be wired like that forever. But what we’re learning is that the brain is a lot more flexible and adaptable than we thought. We call this ability to adapt and rewire “neuroplasticity.”
What does it mean for a brain to be plastic? It’s almost like rearranging, not physically, but parts of the brain can be reassigned to handle new things or tasks. Scientists have found that blind people are almost always a little better at echolocating than sighted people. Their brains had to develop new ways to handle sensory information. That’s exactly what happened to Molly.
**Brian:** If you’re already able to walk down the sidewalk and passively detect trees, that means your hearing is super astute. That’s great. So now when we teach you this active signal, that’s going to bring more clarity to your image.
So the visual analogy is this: we have active echolocation, which we teach with a click… “click,” “click.”
**Molly:** Wow, that doesn’t sound like a tongue click!
**Joe:** That’s such a good tongue click!
**Brian:** What gives you control over your environment with the active click is that it allows you to, almost like a screen refresher. So if you’re running down the street or riding your bike down the street, you can click, and you can actually hear the back of parked cars or curbs.
In a quiet residential neighborhood, we can ride a bike and we actively click.
**Joe:** You’re riding a bike as a blind person, which I could bet you—
**Molly:** Not a tandem bike?
**Brian:** Not a tandem bike.
**Molly:** I had to stop riding bikes when I was eight because I rode into a pole. Ever since then, I’ve had to use a tandem bike. That was frustrating for me, and that’s always one of the things when people ask me what I miss about being sighted. I always say the things that give you freedom. I have seen blind people using active echolocation where they’re skateboarding on their own, or playing basketball on their own, or riding a bike on their own. That’s what I would love to do.
**Joe:** Well, speaking of learning echolocation, I’m hoping Brian can take us through a few things so we can show people what this education looks like, what these techniques look like, and hopefully through my sighted perspective, show that anyone can do this.
**Brian:** So when we talk about clicking, there are actually two sounds. There’s the click that’s made in our mouth, and there’s the echo that’s reflected off of everything in this room. You want a good click to be clear, clean, and sharp, and then you ignore it because you’re really paying attention to—
**Molly:** What the feedback is?
**Brian:** Exactly!
Getting a good tongue click is hard. Clicking is what people like me use, but really, you can navigate your environment with almost any sound you make. For the first demonstration, I’m going to use a shhhh sound. I’m going to put my hands up in a flat area and make that shhhh sound, and you’ll hear the sound change as it comes in front of me.
**Brian:** SHhhhh demo. Should we try it?
**Brian:** Sure, try it!
**Brian:** So what we’ve just understood here in a matter of seconds is that you just understood when something was in front of you versus when something was not. AND you could even hear when another person did this.
Once we had some practice with shhhh-ing, we learned how to tell different echoes apart.
**Brian:** Just, you know, by a hunch, what’s your hypothesis? Which do you think will be easier to hear, the hollow bowl or the flat panel?
**Joe:** The hollow bowl, I think, is going to have a pretty distinct sound.
Hollow sounds, like what comes out of the bowl, are easy to pick out because the edges work like a funnel, sending the sound back towards you. Listen to the difference.
**Brian:** These are the things we want to note because this hollow bowl will represent entryways, doorways. Most doors are placed in alcoves, and alcoves create a hollow sound, very similar to a bowl. When you understand how to listen and recognize that, you know where to aim a guide dog or a cane.
**Brian:** When I say go, I want you to click and recognize where you hear your hollow space, on the right or on the left. Go.
**Joe:** Ok, left?
**Brian:** Correct! Now keep clicking, and aim and try to reach your hand and touch it.
**Joe:** Oh no!
**Brian:** Boom, that’s amazing for the first time though. That’s directive reaching; that’s important. It’s part of how we teach ourselves.
**Joe:** Molly’s turn!
**Molly:** Oh goodness.
**Joe:** Ok, I’m going to take my blindfold off so I can experience this.
**Molly:** So, I’m intrigued to try the clicking because my instinct is so much to not click because I’m so used to listening to the natural sounds.
Watching what Molly could do, even without clicking, was impressive. She told me things about the room that I would never imagine someone who couldn’t see would know about, just by the sound it makes.
**Molly:** I feel like there’s stuff behind us, like it’s very heavy back there, whereas it’s very open in front and to the left; it’s far more open at least than behind us and to the right.
**Brian:** Use that to your advantage.
**Joe:** You’re already adapted.
**Molly:** It’s to my right, but a little in front of me.
**Brian:** Ok, so I want you to click, and imagine where it is, and reach out and touch it.
**Molly:** Yesss!!!! I did it exactly!
**Brian:** Graduating to the next level!
**Molly:** Yayyy!!!!
**Brian:** Here we go! So already in a matter of minutes and just a couple of exercises, you’re already noticing powerful information. When something is there and when it isn’t.
**Molly:** And I do notice, the time I didn’t click and grab, I grabbed your hand. But the time I did click, I was more precise.
**Brian:** You were more precise.
**Molly:** So, you’re right! It was more precise. I’m already starting to see the difference between just passive echolocation and actively trying to do it.
Brian describes seeing with sound waves as a kind of fuzzy geometry, and one place you can really see that fuzzy geometry is in a corner.
**Brian:** Corners have such a unique quality because the sound triangulates inside a corner.
**Brian:** Molly, go ahead and try the shh thing first because anytime you have sighted people to explain this, the shh will help everyone.
**Molly:** shhhhhh. Oh my god, it’s so weird; it’s like I have a full image of the half tunnel around me.
**Brian:** Oh yeah! It’s amazing! It totally takes the shape; it’s such a cool phenomenon.
**Brian:** And the other thing we’re going to talk about is edge detection. We’re going to look at what it sounds like to actually face a wall versus the open space of the open door. We’re really listening to the threshold of the wall and the open space. You’ll hear the external edge of the door frame.
**Joe:** Shhhhhhhhh. It’s right there, right in front of my nose.
**Joe:** It’s almost like the sound goes mute, in a way.
Studies have shown that especially for novice echolocators, moving the head around helps us understand the shape of the space around them. One of the things I realized as we were practicing is how tiring this was; my brain felt exhausted as if I’d been studying for three hours. It’s a workout for your brain.
**Brian:** One of the great things we accomplished is activating everyone’s perceptual system, getting the brain just curious about more information. It’s easy to imagine echolocation as just listening, but it’s more than that. The human brain wants sensory information, and it’s constantly trying to construct a map of our environment, whether or not we’re aware of it. The difference is which type of input people give their brains.
When scientists put blind echolocators into MRI machines and played recorded echoes back to them, the regions of the brain associated with vision were activated – even though they weren’t getting any visual input. The parts of the brain that handle motion and movement were turned on during active echolocation, even if the person wasn’t moving at all. The weird part is that we don’t really understand exactly how brains rewire like this, but it’s another sign of how adaptable the brain is.
**Molly:** I’m curious how this would benefit me in very crowded environments. When it’s very crowded, guide dogs can’t do their thing, canes can’t really do their thing because it’s like hitting a thing, hitting a thing. In really crowded environments, most blind people end up going sighted-guide. Every blind person needs to know about this; every blind person needs to have access to this.
People like Brian and the rest of the Visioneers team are giving not just blind people, but all of us, a new way to experience the world. Studies are showing us that our abilities go beyond what we’d expect. This experience changed the way I think about my own brain and about my own ideas of what it’s like to be blind.
**Joe:** I’ve gone through my life thinking… my perception of blindness is that something is missing. And this has shown me that I have been missing and tuning out this other sensory experience that is incredibly rich and that can show me different things about my environment that I was just ignoring. That’s the biggest thing I’ll take away from this; it’s not something leaving, it’s gaining something new.
**Brian:** I’ve also been asked that question, you know, “Brian, if you could see again, what would that be like? Would you want to?” But the experiences that I’ve learned from the quote unquote “vision loss” have actually taught me so much more about life and our human capacity. I’ve had the great fortune of actually conquering one of man’s greatest fears: the fear of darkness. The fact that we could all image acoustically really challenges that whole notion.
Many times sighted people say, “Oh, if you can’t see the flashing lights that hypnotize, it’s a loss.” And I say, “You sighted people have not developed your brain to actually understand the world and beauty of acoustic images.”
**Molly:** So they’re also missing out on something. That kind of levels the playing field, in a way.
**Joe:** Brian, thank you so much for letting us experience this. My brain is tired in the best way possible. Molly, thank you so much for experiencing this with us.
**Molly:** This was amazing!
**Joe:** Guys, stay curious, and I’m going to keep practicing. If you want to learn more, head on over to Molly’s channel. I helped her dig into the science of her particular kind of blindness, which was super interesting, and I learned so much talking to her.
**Joe:** And we’ve already figured out that I’m going to be the first to die in the zombie apocalypse.
**Molly:** Yep.
Echolocation – A method used by some animals to locate objects by emitting sounds and listening for the echoes that return from those objects. – Bats use echolocation to navigate and find insects in the dark.
Sound – A type of energy that travels through the air (or other mediums) as vibrations and can be heard when it reaches a person’s or animal’s ear. – The sound of the thunder was so loud that it shook the windows.
Brain – The organ in the head of humans and other animals that controls thought, memory, emotion, and activity. – The brain processes information from our senses to help us understand the world around us.
Vision – The ability to see; the sense that allows us to perceive light, shapes, and colors. – Vision is crucial for many animals to find food and avoid predators.
Animals – Living organisms that can move independently and have specialized sense organs to respond to their environment. – Animals like dolphins and whales use sound to communicate and navigate the ocean.
Learning – The process of acquiring new knowledge or skills through study, experience, or teaching. – Learning about the solar system helped the students understand how planets orbit the sun.
Environment – The surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or operates. – The environment of the rainforest is home to a diverse range of species.
Neuroplasticity – The brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life. – Neuroplasticity allows people to learn new skills and recover from brain injuries.
Practice – The repeated exercise or performance of an activity or skill to acquire or maintain proficiency in it. – Regular practice of math problems helps students improve their problem-solving skills.
Echoes – Sounds that are reflected off a surface and heard again. – The echoes of the singer’s voice could be heard bouncing off the walls of the canyon.
