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Scientists at the Duke Center for Neuroengineering have successfully given lab rats a sixth sense: the ability to detect infrared light, a part of the electromagnetic spectrum that is normally invisible to them. The rats were wired with a brain-machine interface that included an infrared detector — but the scientists implanted it in the part of the brain that typically processes the sense of touch. Initial training of the rats involved rewarding them with water when they successfully poked their nose into a port attached to a visible LED light. Then, over the course of a month, the researchers gradually replaced the LED lights with infrared lighting; those lights were picked up by sensors attached to the rats’ foreheads that connect to…
via The Verge – All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/14/3988004/brain-machine-implant-gives-rats-a-sixth-sense
