Rats Touch IR

“Researchers have given rats the ability to 'touch' infrared light, normally invisible to them, by fitting them with an infrared detector wired to microscopic electrodes implanted in the part of the mammalian brain that processes tactile information. The achievement represents the first time a brain-machine interface has augmented a sense in adult animals,” notes Medical News Today. MNT added the experiment showed that a cortical region specializing in another sense could process a novel sensory input “ without 'hijacking' the function of this brain area...This discovery suggests...that a person whose visual cortex was damaged could regain sight through a neuroprosthesis implanted in another cortical region, he said.” Read more.