A new brain implant doesn’t restore sight in blind rats, but it does something a whole lot weirder: give the rat the extra sense of geomagnetism. It could one day be a new way to navigate for blind people–or heck, even healthy people hankering for a sixth sense.
In the study published in Current Biology, scientists in Japan put a chip that could sense north and south inside the brains of rats. The rats also got two electrodes implanted in the visual cortex of the brains. If its head faced roughly north, the electrodes stimulated the right visual cortex. If south, then the left visual cortex.
Essentially, the rat can “see” which direction it’s facing without really, erh, seeing anything through its eyes. It was probably disorientating at first, but after two days and 60 trials, the blind rats could navigate a maze just as well as rats with sight. With the implants removed, they were lost again.
via Gizmodo
April 3, 2015
One thought on “A magnetic brain implant lets blind rats see without seeing”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
featured blogs
Apr 25, 2024
Structures in Allegro X layout editors let you create reusable building blocks for your PCBs, saving you time and ensuring consistency. What are Structures? Structures are pre-defined groups of design objects, such as vias, connecting lines (clines), and shapes. You can combi...
Apr 25, 2024
See how the UCIe protocol creates multi-die chips by connecting chiplets from different vendors and nodes, and learn about the role of IP and specifications.The post Want to Mix and Match Dies in a Single Package? UCIe Can Get You There appeared first on Chip Design....
Apr 18, 2024
Are you ready for a revolution in robotic technology (as opposed to a robotic revolution, of course)?...
Instead of Rats, please start using politicians( either party )!!!