A Magnetic Brain Implant Lets Blind Rats See Without Seeing

A new brain implant does n’t restore sight in blind rats , but it does something a whole pile weirder : give the bum theextra sense of geomagnetism . It could one day be a new way to navigate for blind people – or heck , even healthy citizenry long for a sixth sense .

In thestudy publish in Current Biology , scientists in Japan put a chip that could sense north and Dixie inside the brains of rats . The rats also got two electrodes embed in the optic cortex of the brains . If its head faced more or less northerly , the electrodes stimulated the right visual cortex . If in the south , then the leftover visual cortex .

Essentially , the rotter can “ see ” which direction it ’s face without really , erh , learn anything through its eyes . It was probably disorientating at first , but after two Clarence Day and 60 trials , the blind rats could pilot a maze just as well as rats with vision . With the implants take away , they were fall behind again .

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The experiment demonstrates yet again that the brain is unusually moldable , and neuroscientists have experimented with unify and matching sensorial signal before . For example , a different brain implant countenance mice“touch ” light .

“ I ’m dreaming that humans can expound their sentiency through artificial sensor for geomagnetism , ultraviolet , radio waves , ultrasonic waves and so on,”Yuji Ikegaya , the senior generator study , told New Scientist . And it ’s not a completely crazy thought , at least for people already convince they want to explore sensory unknowns . People haveimplanted magnets in their fingers , and one guy hacked his hearing aidsto hear Wi - Fi . nous implants , though , would be a huge and trespassing step up from these minor tweaks . [ Current Biology , New Scientist ]

Top figure : lculic / shutterstock

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