Rewiring the brain from sight to sound to sight again

May 16, 2008 | Source: KurzweilAI

California Institute of Technology researchers have found that the brain doesn’t lose one sensory ability (sound movement, in this case) when it rewires an area for use by another sense (visual movement, in this case).

The MT+/V5 area of the brain is used for visual motion processing in sighted people. In the formerly blind people they studied, this area had been co-opted for processing auditory motion (sounds moving from side to side). But after regaining some of their vision, scans showed they retained use of the MT+/V5 area for auditory processing–in addition to visual motion processing.

California Institute of Technology News Release