Are Humans Able to Echolocate?

Now, research published in PLOS ONE shows that people can learn click-based echolocation regardless of their age or ability to see, Alice Lipscombe-Southwell reports for BBC Science Focus magazine. ... Participants were between 21 and 79 years old, and included 12 people who are blind and 14 people who are not blind.

Are humans capable of echolocation?

Both passive and active echolocation help blind individuals learn about their environments. ... However, with training, sighted individuals with normal hearing can learn to avoid obstacles using only sound, showing that echolocation is a general human ability.

Can you train yourself to have echolocation?

Blind humans have been known to use echolocation to "see" their environment, but even sighted people can learn the skill, a new study finds. Study participants learned to echolocate, or glean information about surroundings by bouncing sound waves off surfaces, in a virtual environment.