I Was Once Blind: Neuroplasticity in the Treatment of Sensory Impairment

Sorry for the mouthful of a title there. 

I've never been a big consumer of the mind-altering drugs, but I watched a video this morning that makes me think I just ate a whole batch of pot brownies. 

The term "neuroplasticity"--the brain's ability to adapt and change through life--has been getting a lot of play lately, and it's easy to see why:   sure, it's cutting-edge, scientifically validated, all that.  But more importantly, it's a feel-good concept.  We don't stop learning as children!  The brain can learn and adapt and change through life!  60-year-olds can graduate from med school!!  70-year-olds can learn to read for the first time!  Your Mom can learn to use her iPhone!     

The underlying message:  There's Still Hope For Me.  Every 27-year-old weed-smoking Atari 2600 addict living in his parents' garage, and perhaps even more importantly, the parents of such slackers, can take some small solace in the fact that, no matter what, we can still learn.  It's not too late. 

Perhaps even more impressive than that kid landing a burger-flipping gig, though, are the examples in the video linked above.  Basing their research on the findings and theories of a chappie named Dr. Paul Bach Y Rita, a group of smarty-pants types has come up with a handful of interesting devices, one to help the blind see, another to help people who have permanently-impaired equilibrium regain their land-legs. 

Both devices work by re-routing information from an impaired sensory 'port' to a functioning one.  In the first case, the sense of touch, specifically the sense of touch on the tongue, stands in for the sense of sight.  In the second, the sense of sight stands in for the sense of balance.  Bach Y Rita theorized some time ago that information taken in by the brain--be it through the eyes, ears, or any other sense--was simply data:  neural impulses later processed by the brain as image, sound, and so on.  Such impulses were the neural equivalent of the zeros and ones in the binary language of the computer. 

If that theory held, then it should follow that a person doesn't really need eyes to 'see.'  It should be possible to get visual information through one or more other sensory ports.  Clearly, it works:  when a blind subject uses the tongue-reading device, his visual cortex--the area in the brain responsible for processing visual data--lit up. 

And, as the video shows, subjects with impaired balance can relearn how to right themselves with the balance-video game device to such a degree that the device becomes unnecessary after awhile. 

I feel so affirmed and optimistic!  Thanks, PBS!