A woman who had absolutely no balance and could not stand without falling due to a loss of vestibular function fully regained it with the use of accelerometers that sent signals through the brain via electrodes attached to her tongue.

A man who had been blind since birth was able to distinguish people and objects and even perceive three-dimensional space by feeling a matrix of vibrating stimulators against his back.

Both of these feats were accomplished by Paul Bach-y-Rita, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They are demonstrations of neuroplasticity — the brain’s ability to reprogram itself — in this case substituting one sense for another.

Bach-y-Rita determined that skin and its touch receptors could substitute for a retina, because both the skin and the retina are two-dimensional sheets, covered with sensory receptors that allow a ‘picture’ to form on them.

It is one thing to find a new data port, or way of getting sensations to the brain, but another for the brain to decode these skin sensations and turn them into pictures. To do that, the brain has to learn something new. This adaptability implies that the brain is plastic, in the sense that it can reorganise its sensory perceptual system.

The entire article is really worth a read.

[The Telegraph via RichardDawkins.net]