A completely blind British man has been shown to possess an apparent “sixth sense” which lets him recognise emotions on people’s faces.

The 52-year-old was able to react to pictures of human faces showing emotions such as anger, happiness or fear, the researchers said.



The man, identified only as “patient X”, has suffered two strokes that damaged the brain areas that process visual signals, leaving him completely blind.



However, his eyes and optic nerves are intact, and brain scans showed that he appeared to somehow use a part of the brain not usually used for sight to process visual signals linked to some emotions.



When researchers from the University of Wales showed the man images of shapes such as circles and squares, he could only guess what they were, and had a similar lack of success determining the gender of emotionless male and female faces.



More here.