It's an audacious idea, and I didn't believe it was possible until I saw the video. But it really is possible to teach blind people to see using their tongue. By connecting a camera to an array of electrodes that stimulate the sensitive nerves inside the mouth - a pixel of light is translated into a slight pinch - scientists can literally retrain the brain. Check out the video:
This might seem like an impossible example of sensory plasticity, but it's been done before. The neuroscientist Mriganka Sur, for example, literally re-wired the mind of a ferret, so that the information from its retina was plugged into its auditory cortex. To Sur's astonishment, the ferrets could still see. Furthermore, their auditory cortex now resembled the typical ferret visual cortex, complete with spatial maps and neurons tuned to detect slants of light.
Thanks for the tip Nikhil!
Comments
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Posted by: Barbara Kim Thigpen | October 18, 2007 12:26 PM
Jonah,
Great stuff. I just added you to the blogroll on my own block which, although with a somewhat different focus, was originally inspired by my fascination with the brain (hence its name) and the way it shapes what moves people.
Anyway, won't do any shameless self-propaganda here, just wanted to say yours is one of the smartest blogs I've come across in a long time -- and I scan blogs for a living. Keep it coming.
Posted by: Maria | October 18, 2007 5:37 PM
Nice article.. great stuff.. Just had a thought (or you can say a doubt) - will it possible to do the similar way to deaf and dum people also as everything is related to converting the light/sound/action into signals and sending them to brain (if 'm not wrong)? can we extend this to other activities also?
Posted by: Vishnu | October 22, 2007 11:40 PM
nice one... Is this possible to be taken to the masses??
How effective and cost efficient is this??
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Posted by: Venkatesh Varalu | October 23, 2007 5:05 PM
Seeing with your tongue, unbelievable!
Posted by: Kris Verburgh | October 28, 2007 9:13 AM