Analysis with rats reveals how a wearable sensor can tap into brain potential to make up for lost sight. The findings could possibly be applied to assisting humans with seeing issues.
(Photo : China Photographs | Getty Photos)
The mammal brain is an amazingly versatile organ. A new study reveals that blind rats can learn to navigate a maze pretty much as fantastic as rats with great eyesight.
The findings, published in the Existing Biology journal, may well 1 day lead to assisting blind humans move about much more freely and safely.
"The most exceptional point of this paper is to show the prospective, or the latent capability, of the brain," said Yuji Ikegaya of the University of Tokyo. "That is, we demonstrated that the mammalian brain is versatile even in adulthood &mdash sufficient to adaptively incorporate a novel, under no circumstances-skilled, non-inherent modality into the pre-current info sources."
It appears the brain somehow compensates for vision loss by drawing on an allocentric sense, which lets animals and people know the position of their physique in connection to their environment.
In the study, the missing sense was recreated by headgear featuring a geomagnetic sensor that connects to the same kind of digital compass applied in smartphones.
The sensor detected the position of the rat's head, delivering electrical stimuli to indicate path, such as north or south, according to Ikegaya and fellow researcher Hiroaki Norimoto. Working with the wearable gear, the blind rats have been educated to hunt for food in a maze. Within a brief timeframe, they had discovered to use the geomagnetic information to solve complex mazes.
The study involved 20 trials more than nine consecutive days. By the fifth day of testing, the rats had been selecting the appropriate turn 90 percent of the time.
The outcomes show that functionality and navigation skills rapidly became on par with normal seeing rats, through the restoration of allocentric sense to the blind rats. The proponents had been surprise how the rats have been capable to comprehend the new sense and have been able to carry out behavioral tasks in a matter of two or 3 days.
The findings could lead to the development of equivalent sensor technology for humans who are blind or dealing with severe eyesight difficulties. The sensors could tap ultraviolet radiation or ultrasound waves.
The study also illustrates how the potential of the brain is going largely untapped.
"Possibly you do not yet make complete use of your brain," Ikegaya mentioned. "The genuine sensory planet have to be a great deal a lot more 'colorful' than what you are at the moment experiencing."
(Photo : China Photographs | Getty Photos)
The mammal brain is an amazingly versatile organ. A new study reveals that blind rats can learn to navigate a maze pretty much as fantastic as rats with great eyesight.
The findings, published in the Existing Biology journal, may well 1 day lead to assisting blind humans move about much more freely and safely.
"The most exceptional point of this paper is to show the prospective, or the latent capability, of the brain," said Yuji Ikegaya of the University of Tokyo. "That is, we demonstrated that the mammalian brain is versatile even in adulthood &mdash sufficient to adaptively incorporate a novel, under no circumstances-skilled, non-inherent modality into the pre-current info sources."
It appears the brain somehow compensates for vision loss by drawing on an allocentric sense, which lets animals and people know the position of their physique in connection to their environment.
In the study, the missing sense was recreated by headgear featuring a geomagnetic sensor that connects to the same kind of digital compass applied in smartphones.
The sensor detected the position of the rat's head, delivering electrical stimuli to indicate path, such as north or south, according to Ikegaya and fellow researcher Hiroaki Norimoto. Working with the wearable gear, the blind rats have been educated to hunt for food in a maze. Within a brief timeframe, they had discovered to use the geomagnetic information to solve complex mazes.
The study involved 20 trials more than nine consecutive days. By the fifth day of testing, the rats had been selecting the appropriate turn 90 percent of the time.
The outcomes show that functionality and navigation skills rapidly became on par with normal seeing rats, through the restoration of allocentric sense to the blind rats. The proponents had been surprise how the rats have been capable to comprehend the new sense and have been able to carry out behavioral tasks in a matter of two or 3 days.
The findings could lead to the development of equivalent sensor technology for humans who are blind or dealing with severe eyesight difficulties. The sensors could tap ultraviolet radiation or ultrasound waves.
The study also illustrates how the potential of the brain is going largely untapped.
"Possibly you do not yet make complete use of your brain," Ikegaya mentioned. "The genuine sensory planet have to be a great deal a lot more 'colorful' than what you are at the moment experiencing."
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