History Much of our current understanding of blindsight can be attributed to early experiments on monkeys. One monkey, named Helen, could be considered the "star monkey in visual research" because she was the original blindsight subject. Helen was a macaque monkey that had been decorticated; specifically, her primary visual cortex (V1) was completely removed, blinding her. Nevertheless, under certain specific situations, Helen exhibited sighted behavior. Her pupils would dilate and she would blink at stimuli that threatened her eyes. Furthermore, under certain experimental conditions, she could detect a variety of visual stimuli, such as the presence and location of objects, as well as shape, pattern, orientation, motion, and color. In many cases, she was able to navigate her environment and interact with objects as if she were sighted.
History Much of our current .understanding of blindsight can be attributed to early experiments on monkeys. One monkey, named Helen, could be considered the "star monkey in visual research" because she was the original blindsight subject. Helen was a macaque monkey that had been decorticated; specifically, her primary visual cortex (V1) was completely removed, blinding her. Nevertheless, under certain specific situations, Helen exhibited sighted behavior. Her pupils would dilate and she would blink at stimuli that threatened her eyes. Furthermore, under certain experimental conditions, she could detect a variety of visual! stimuli, such as the presence and location of objects, as well as shape, pattern, orientation, motion, and color. In many cases, she .was able to navigate her environment and interact with objects as if she were sighted.