Reading a book i picked up in Cambodia .. about the neuro-plasticity of the brain: Norman Doidge, “The Brain that Changes itself“.

Chapter One tells the story of a scientist back in 1969, who hooked up a computer to a camera .. and wired it all into a small pixellated metal plate, touching the skin of a person who had been blind since birth.

He did this because he wanted to show that the brain’s visual cortex can take sensory input from .. not only eyes but also skin. Touch can create a picture .. and the brain can adapt to turn this into vision. After a few weeks of practising, the person was experiencing something very like vision.

Nice experiment!

However back then, people hated the idea that the brain could re-make itself back then, so his research went largely un-noticed.

Here’s Dr Doidge talking on Slow TV, the Australian Monthly series:

Related stuff:

• Author Norman on 7.30 report
• Norman on Slow TV: part i, part ii (rss at blip.tv)
• The book at Readings
• Knitted brains!!

photo credit: onkel_wart