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Tactile Sensory Substitution Studies
Author(s) -
BACHYRITA PAUL
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1196/annals.1305.006
Subject(s) - sensory substitution , substitution (logic) , vestibular system , sensory system , microphone , computer science , psychology , neuroplasticity , audiology , human–computer interaction , cognitive psychology , cognitive science , neuroscience , medicine , telecommunications , sound pressure , programming language
A bstract : Forty years ago a project to explore late brain plasticity was initiated that was to lead into a broad area of sensory substitution studies. The questions at that time were: Can a person who has never seen learn to see as an adult? Is the brain sufficiently plastic to develop an entirely new sensory system? The short answer to both questions is yes , first clearly demonstrated in 1969 (Bach‐y‐Rita et al., 1969). To reach that conclusion, it was first necessary to find a way to get visual information to the brain. That took many years and is still the most challenging aspect of the research and the development of practical sensory substitution and augmentation systems. The sensor array is not a problem: a TV camera for blind persons; an accelerometer for persons with vestibular loss; a microphone for deaf persons. These are common and fully developed devices. The problem is the brain‐machine interface (BMI). In this short report, only two substitution systems are discussed, vision and vestibular substitution.