Training the Brain: Sensory Substitution

<p class="p1">This podcast is about big ideas on how technology is making life better for people with vision loss.</p> <p class="p1">Today’s big idea centers on the place where big ideas get born — the human brain. In today’s episode, Dr. Roberts and his guests explore theories of brain plasticity, sensory substitution, and sensory augmentation. Dr. Patricia Grant discusses the BrainPort, which uses sensory substitution in this case, the nerve fibers in the tongue, to send information to the brain instead of the optic nerve. Dr. John-Ross Rizzo is developing a device to be called the Sensory Halo, which is supported by sensory augmentation. Both guests share what is being learned about sensory substitution and augmentation through these technologies and how this understanding will help perfect future devices to enable people with vision impairment to see better.</p> <p class="p2"> </p> <p class="p1"><strong>The Big Takeaways:</strong></p> <ul class="ul1"> <li class="li1">The BrainPort is a headset device with a camera that picks up visual input as the eyes would. It uses the theory of sensory substitution by sending stimulation to the nerve fibers on the tongue. The device picks up visual formation in grayscale imagery: lighter areas of the images produce high stimulation on the tongue, while dark areas produce none. This contrast allows users to identify objects in their environment.</li> <li class="li1">The BrainPort device is meant for people who are blind so it’s not crowding out a person’s residual vision. And surprisingly, both users who are congenitally blind and users who have seen before and have a visual memory — have performed the same in clinical trials.<span class= "Apple-converted-space"> </span> This shows that users are not experiencing a memory of sight. They are learning to interpret the camera’s image through stimulating the nerve fibers on their tongue.</li> <li class="li1">In the future, there are opportunities for collaboration between BrainPort and other technologies to continue to enhance