Neurophilosophy discusses the late Paul Bach-y-Rita's remarkable, successful treatment of a woman who could not maintain her balance as a result of severe vestibular damage. Bach-y-Rita proposed that the brain is polysensory meaning that one sensory area of the brain could learn to process information that normally reports to a different sensory area -- a process known as sensory substitution. Bach-y-Rita applied the same principle to the development of devices for visual and hearing impairments.
Wired Science has a video report:
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