Chapter 1. Rewiring the Brain

Short Description

This video provides a dramatic example of how the brain can be rewired so that stimulation of the tongue enables a blind person to see. Roger has been blind since he was a young man.

Long Description

This video provides a dramatic example of how the brain can be rewired so that stimulation of the tongue enables a blind person to see. Roger has been blind since he was a young man. Now BrainPort, an amazing new experimental technology, is enabling him to regain his sight. The technology swaps eyes for tiny cameras that transform visual images to electrical signals that Roger feels on his tongue. Roger compares it to the feeling of having someone draw a picture on oneís back. In normal vision, the eye sends signals to the brainís visual cortex for interpretation. BrainPort retrains the brain to process information by first stimulating the tongue. The signals are sent via the brainstem to the area of the brain that processes touch. Eventually, the blind person learns to interpret touch as sight in the visual cortex. Wearing a small camera on his forehead, Roger carefully and accurately navigates the corridors of the office and, at one point, even spots the logo on a football jersey. Other blind persons are able to recognize numbers. The trainer explains how the process is much like learning a new language that eventually becomes automatic. Wearing a blindfold, the narrator tries the new technology and, with some practice, is able to see the orientation of straight lines. Over the next several months, refinements in the technology will enable the blind person to see objects with greater clarity. BrainPort dramatically illustrates how the human brain can be rewired.

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