Sidney Bradford

Who was Sidney Bradford?

Sidney Bradford went blind at 10 months of age, but regained sight on both eyes after a cornea transplant at the age of 52. He was the subject of many scientific studies of perception by neuropsychologist Richard Gregory.

His operation was able to reveal idiosyncrasies of the human visual system. For example, not having grown up with vision, Bradford did not perceive the ambiguity of the Necker cube, nor was he able to interpret the perspective of two-dimensional art.

Nevertheless, he could accurately judge the distance to objects in the same room, having been familiar with these distances before regaining sight by virtue of having walked them. In a similar analogy between vision and sightless experience, Bradford was able to visually read the time on the ward clock just after his operation.

Intoxicated with a new world of colour and motion, Bradford became terrified of the sights that he could not, in many cases, understand. He could not recognise humans, or many items he had perceived only by touch.

Before surgery Bradford was a machinist, but even after acquiring vision preferred working with his eyes closed to identify tools.