Mike May (skier)

Last updated
Mike May
Personal information
Full nameMichael G. May
Born1953 (age 67–68)
Sport
CountryFlag of the United States.svg  United States
Sport Para-alpine skiing
Disability class B1
Medal record
Paralympic Games
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 1984 Innsbruck Downhill B1
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 1984 Innsbruck Giant slalom B1
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 1984 Innsbruck Alpine combination B1

Michael G. May (born 1953) is an American business executive, skier and enthusiast of other sports who was blinded by a chemical explosion at the age of three, but regained partial vision in 2000, at the age of 46, after cornea transplants and a pioneering stem cell procedure by San Francisco ophthalmologist Daniel Goodman. In 1999, May founded the Sendero Group in Davis, California, United States, which employs many individuals who are blind or visually impaired. [1] Sendero has assisted those with sight disabilities by producing the first accessible GPS solution for blind persons. The Sendero Group's GPS technology received the Consumer Electronics Show's "Innovation Honoree" title in 2004 and 2009. [2] [3]

Contents

Among his many accomplishments, May holds the record for downhill skiing by a person who is completely blind (racing at 65 mph). He competed in the alpine skiing event at the 1984 Winter Paralympics and won three bronze medals in the downhill, giant slalom, and combination events. [4] May and his ex-wife, Jennifer, had two sons, Carson and Wyndham. Carson died while skiing, likely due to an avalanche, in January 2016. [5]

Restoration of sight

In 2003, three years after May's eye operation, the results were mixed. In terms of challenges, May reported being unable to grasp three-dimensional vision and to recognize members of his family by their faces alone. [6]

The effect of visual loss affects the development of the visual cortex of the brain—the visual impairment causes the occipital lobe to lose its sensitivity in perceiving spatial processing. Siu and Morley (2008) [7] proposed that following seven days of visual deprivation, a potential decrease in vision may occur. They also found an increasing degree of visual impairment following thirty-day and 120-day periods of deprivation. The Siu and Morley study suggests that the function of the brain is dependent upon visual input.

May lost his eyesight at the age of three when his vision was not fully developed; he was not yet able to distinguish shapes, drawings, or images clearly. Consequently, it was anticipated that he would experience difficulty describing the outside world in comparison to a normal-sighted person. For example, it would be difficult for May to differentiate between complex shapes, dimensions, and the orientation of objects. Hannan (2006) hypothesized that the temporal visual cortex uses prior memory and experiences to make sense of shapes, colors, and forms. Hannan proposed that the long-term effect of blindness in the visual cortex is an inability to recognize spatial cues.

At three years of age, May's vision had not reached the acuity of an adult; as a consequence, his brain was still not completely exposed to the full extent of clarity in relation to the images and light of the environment. Such impairment led to difficulties with regard to normal daily life. Cohen et al. (1997) [8] suggested that early blindness causes the poor development of the visual cortex, with a resulting decrease in somatosensory development. Cohen's study proposed that May's long term blindness affects his ability to distinguish between faces of males and females, and to recognize pictures and images. In spite of the surgery on May's right eye, his newly regained vision is not fully recovered after forty years of blindness. Thinus-Blanc and Gaunet (1997) suggest that people who are blind early in life show a limited ability in the area of spatial representation. The impairment of May's visual cortex, due to the loss of his vision at a very early age, resulted in visual cortex cells that are not accustomed to the stimuli in his surroundings.

However, Cohen et al. (1997) have proposed that, during their early years, blinded subjects develop a strong inclination for tactile discrimination tasks. Similarly, May has developed very precise senses of hearing and touch.

Biography

In 2006, journalist Robert Kurson wrote a book on May that was expanded from an article Kurson wrote for Esquire magazine. [9] The book, Crashing Through: A True Story of Risk, Adventure and the Man Who Dared to See, was released on May 15, 2007.

Film adaptation

Interest was expressed within the film industry regarding the translation of May's story into a motion picture, and, as of July 2011, Stone Village Productions and DRO Entertainment owned the rights to the film adaptation of Kurson's book. Emmy Award-winning screenwriter, Adam Mazer, had been employed to write the script. [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

Visual system Body parts responsible for sight

The visual system comprises the sensory organ and parts of the central nervous system which gives organisms the sense of sight as well as enabling the formation of several non-image photo response functions. It detects and interprets information from the optical spectrum perceptible to that species to "build a representation" of the surrounding environment. The visual system carries out a number of complex tasks, including the reception of light and the formation of monocular neural representations, colour vision, the neural mechanisms underlying stereopsis and assessment of distances to and between objects, the identification of particular object of interest, motion perception, the analysis and integration of visual information, pattern recognition, accurate motor coordination under visual guidance, and more. The neuropsychological side of visual information processing is known as visual perception, an abnormality of which is called visual impairment, and a complete absence of which is called blindness. Non-image forming visual functions, independent of visual perception, include the pupillary light reflex (PLR) and circadian photoentrainment.

Amblyopia Failure of the brain to process input from one eye

Amblyopia, also called lazy eye, is a disorder of sight in which the brain fails to process inputs from one eye and over time favors the other eye. It results in decreased vision in an eye that otherwise typically appears normal. Amblyopia is the most common cause of decreased vision in a single eye among children and younger adults.

Visual impairment, also known as vision impairment or vision loss, is a decreased ability to see to a degree that causes problems not fixable by usual means, such as glasses. Some also include those who have a decreased ability to see because they do not have access to glasses or contact lenses. Visual impairment is often defined as a best corrected visual acuity of worse than either 20/40 or 20/60. The term blindness is used for complete or nearly complete vision loss. Visual impairment may cause difficulties with normal daily activities such as reading and walking without adaptive training and equipment.

Cortical blindness is the total or partial loss of vision in a normal-appearing eye caused by damage to the brain's occipital cortex. Cortical blindness can be acquired or congenital, and may also be transient in certain instances. Acquired cortical blindness is most often caused by loss of blood flow to the occipital cortex from either unilateral or bilateral posterior cerebral artery blockage and by cardiac surgery. In most cases, the complete loss of vision is not permanent and the patient may recover some of their vision. Congenital cortical blindness is most often caused by perinatal ischemic stroke, encephalitis, and meningitis. Rarely, a patient with acquired cortical blindness may have little or no insight that they have lost vision, a phenomenon known as Anton–Babinski syndrome.

The two-streams hypothesis is a model of the neural processing of vision as well as hearing. The hypothesis, given its initial characterisation in a paper by David Milner and Melvyn A. Goodale in 1992, argues that humans possess two distinct visual systems. Recently there seems to be evidence of two distinct auditory systems as well. As visual information exits the occipital lobe, and as sound leaves the phonological network, it follows two main pathways, or "streams". The ventral stream leads to the temporal lobe, which is involved with object and visual identification and recognition. The dorsal stream leads to the parietal lobe, which is involved with processing the object's spatial location relative to the viewer and with speech repetition.

Paralympic cross-country skiing

Paralympic cross-country skiing is an adaptation of cross-country skiing for athletes with disabilities. Paralympic cross-country skiing is one of two Nordic skiing disciplines in the Winter Paralympic Games; the other is biathlon. Competition is governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).

Para-alpine skiing Skiing for people with disabilities

Paralympic alpine skiing is an adaptation of alpine skiing for athletes with a disability. The sport evolved from the efforts of disabled veterans in Germany and Austria during and after the Second World War. The sport is governed by the International Paralympic Committee Sports Committee. The primary equipment used includes outrigger skis, sit-skis, and mono-skis. Para-alpine skiing disciplines include the Downhill, Super-G, Giant Slalom, Slalom, Super Combined and Snowboard.

Recovery from blindness is the phenomenon of a blind person gaining the ability to see, usually as a result of medical treatment. As a thought experiment, the phenomenon is usually referred to as Molyneux's problem. It is often stated that the first published human case was reported in 1728 by the surgeon William Cheselden. However, there is no evidence that Cheselden's patient, a boy named Daniel Dolins, actually recovered any vision. Patients who experience dramatic recovery from blindness experience significant to total agnosia, having serious confusion with their visual perception.

Paralympic sports

The Paralympic sports comprise all the sports contested in the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games. As of 2016, the Summer Paralympics included 22 sports and 526 medal events, and the Winter Paralympics include 5 sports and disciplines and about 72 events. The number and kinds of events may change from one Paralympic Games to another.

Winter Paralympic Games International multi-sport event for disabled athletes

The Winter Paralympic Games is an international multi-sport event where athletes with physical disabilities compete in snow and ice sports. This includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and cerebral palsy. The Winter Paralympic Games are held every four years directly following the Winter Olympic Games. The Winter Paralympics are also hosted by the city that hosted the Winter Olympics. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) oversees the Winter Paralympics. Medals are awarded in each event: with gold medals for first place, silver for second and bronze for third, following the tradition that the Olympic Games started in 1904.

A sighted guide is a person who guides a person with blindness or vision impairment.

Cross modal plasticity

Cross modal plasticity is the adaptive reorganization of neurons to integrate the function of two or more sensory systems. Cross modal plasticity is a type of neuroplasticity and often occurs after sensory deprivation due to disease or brain damage. The reorganization of the neural network is greatest following long-term sensory deprivation, such as congenital blindness or pre-lingual deafness. In these instances, cross modal plasticity can strengthen other sensory systems to compensate for the lack of vision or hearing. This strengthening is due to new connections that are formed to brain cortices that no longer receive sensory input.

Form perception is the recognition of visual elements of objects, specifically those to do with shapes, patterns and previously identified important characteristics. An object is perceived by the retina as a two-dimensional image, but the image can vary for the same object in terms of the context with which it is viewed, the apparent size of the object, the angle from which it is viewed, how illuminated it is, as well as where it resides in the field of vision. Despite the fact that each instance of observing an object leads to a unique retinal response pattern, the visual processing in the brain is capable of recognizing these experiences as analogous, allowing invariant object recognition. Visual processing occurs in a hierarchy with the lowest levels recognizing lines and contours, and slightly higher levels performing tasks such as completing boundaries and recognizing contour combinations. The highest levels integrate the perceived information to recognize an entire object. Essentially object recognition is the ability to assign labels to objects in order to categorize and identify them, thus distinguishing one object from another. During visual processing information is not created, but rather reformatted in a way that draws out the most detailed information of the stimulus.

B1 (classification)

B1 is a medical-based Paralympic classification for blind sport. Athletes in this classification are totally or almost totally blind. It is used by a number of blind sports including blind tennis, para-alpine skiing, para-Nordic skiing, blind cricket, blind golf, five-a-side football, goalball and judo. Some other sports, including adaptive rowing, athletics and swimming, have equivalents to this class.

B2 (classification)

B2 is a medical based Paralympic classification for blind sport. Competitors in this classification have vision that falls between the B1 and B3 classes. The International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) defines this classification as "visual acuity ranging from LogMAR 1.50 to 2.60 (inclusive) and/or visual field constricted to a diameter of less than 10 degrees." It is used by a number of blind sports including para-alpine skiing, para-Nordic skiing, blind cricket, blind golf, five-a-side football, goalball and judo. Some sports, including adaptive rowing, athletics and swimming, have equivalents to this class.

B3 (classification)

B3 is a medical based Paralympic classification for blind sport. Competitors in this classification have partial sight, with visual acuity from 2/60 to 6/60. It is used by a number of blind sports including para-alpine skiing, para-Nordic skiing, blind cricket, blind golf, five-a-side football, goalball and judo. Some other sports, including adaptive rowing, athletics and swimming, have equivalents to this class.

Para-alpine skiing classification is the classification system for para-alpine skiing designed to ensure fair competition between alpine skiers with different types of disabilities. The classifications are grouped into three general disability types: standing, blind and sitting. Classification governance is handled by International Paralympic Committee Alpine Skiing. Prior to that, several sport governing bodies dealt with classification including the International Sports Organization for the Disabled (ISOD), International Stoke Mandeville Games Federation (ISMWSF), International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) and Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association (CP-ISRA). Some classification systems are governed by bodies other than International Paralympic Committee Alpine Skiing, such as the Special Olympics. The sport is open to all competitors with a visual or physical disability. It is not open to people with intellectual disabilities.

Para-Nordic skiing classification

Para-Nordic skiing classification is the classification system for para-Nordic skiing which includes the biathlon and cross country events. The classifications for Para-Nordic skiing mirrors the classifications for Para-Alpine skiing with some exceptions. A functional mobility and medical classification is in use, with skiers being divided into three groups: standing skiers, sit skiers and visually impaired skiers. International classification is governed by International Paralympic Committee, Nordic Skiing (IPC-NS). Other classification is handled by national bodies. Before the IPC-NS took over classification, a number of organizations handled classification based on the type of disability.

Goalball classification is the classification system for goalball. Goalball players with a disability are classified into different categories based on their vision based disability type. The classification is handled by the International Blind Sports Association.

Neuronal recycling hypothesis

The neuronal recycling hypothesis was proposed by Stanislas Dehaene in the field of cognitive neuroscience in an attempt to explain the underlying neural processes which allow humans to acquire recently invented cognitive capacities. This hypothesis was formulated in response to the 'reading paradox', which states that these cognitive processes are cultural inventions too modern to be the products of evolution. The paradox lies within the fact that cross-cultural evidence suggests specific brain areas are associated with these functions. The concept of neuronal recycling resolves this paradox by suggesting that novel functions actually utilize and 'recycle' existing brain circuitry. Once these cognitive functions find a cortical area devoted to a similar purpose, they can invade the existing circuit. Through plasticity, the cortex can adapt in order to accommodate for these novel functions.

References

  1. ↑ Staff (2012). "Highlight on Mike May". Sendero Group. Mike May. Archived from the original on February 4, 2010. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
  2. ↑ Staff (2004). "2004 Innovations Honorees – Accessibility". International CES. CEA. Archived from the original on June 14, 2012. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
  3. ↑ Staff (2009). "2009 Innovations Honorees – Personal Electronics". International CES. CEA. Archived from the original on June 3, 2012. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
  4. ↑ "Mike May". Paralympic.org. International Paralympic Committee.
  5. ↑ "Body of missing skier Carson May recovered at Sugar Bowl resort".
  6. ↑ ANDREW BRIDGES (August 24, 2003). "Blind Man's Restored Vision Is Studied". Red Orbit. redOrbit.com. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
  7. ↑ Siu, TL; Morley, JW (August 2008). "Suppression of visual cortical evoked responses following deprivation of pattern vision in adult mice". Eur J Neurosci. 28 (3): 484–90. doi:10.1111/j.1460-9568.2008.06342.x. PMID   18702720.
  8. ↑ Cohen, Leonard (September 11, 1997). "Functional relevance of cross-modal plasticity in blind humans.". Nature. 389 (6647): 180–183. doi:10.1038/38278. PMID   9296495.
  9. ↑ Robert Kurson (June 1, 2005). "Into the Light". Esquire. Hearst Communications, Inc. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  10. ↑ Borys Kit (July 19, 2011). "'You Don't Know Jack' Writer to Adapt Book About Blind Man Who Regains Sight (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 10, 2012.

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