The spatial representation of numerical and temporal information is thought to be rooted in our multisensory experiences. Accordingly, we may expect visual or auditory deprivation to affect the way we represent numerical magnitude and time spatially. Here, we systematically review recent findings on how blind and deaf individuals represent abstract concepts such as magnitude and time (e.g., past/future, serial order of events) in a spatial format. Interestingly, available evidence suggests that sensory deprivation does not prevent the spatial “re-mapping” of abstract information, but differences compared to normally sighted and hearing individuals may emerge depending on the specific dimension considered (i.e., numerical magnitude, time as past/future, serial order). Herein we discuss how the study of sensory deprived populations may shed light on the specific, and possibly distinct, mechanisms subserving the spatial representation of these concepts. Furthermore, we pinpoint unresolved issues that need to be addressed by future studies to grasp a full understanding of the spatial representation of abstract information associated with visual and auditory deprivation.

数字和时间信息的空间表示被认为植根于我们的多感官经验中。因此，我们可能期望视觉或听觉上的剥夺会影响我们在空间上表示数值幅度和时间的方式。在这里，我们系统地回顾了关于盲人和聋哑人如何以空间格式表示抽象概念（例如大小和时间（例如，过去/未来，事件的顺序））的最新发现。有趣的是，现有证据表明，感觉剥夺并不能阻止抽象信息的空间“重新映射”，但与正常人和听力正常的个体相比，可能会有所不同，具体取决于所考虑的具体维度（即，数值大小，过去/未来的时间） ，序列顺序）。在这里，我们讨论感官匮乏人群的研究如何阐明维护这些概念的空间表示的特定机制，并且可能是截然不同的机制。此外，我们指出了未解决的问题，需要通过进一步的研究来解决，以充分理解与视觉和听觉剥夺相关的抽象信息的空间表示形式。