If perception is reality, reality might be about to get quite a bit more intense: Super-senses are no longer just for Peter Parker and Clark Kent.
A Duke University study published in Nature Communications shows with a brain implant and some training we may be able to significantly enhance sight, hearing and taste in mammals. Researchers there trained rats to see infrared (i.e. pretty much invisible) light.
They trained the rats to enter LED-lit ports, then implanted electrodes that were connected to cameras into the rodents’ brains. Then, as the rats approached infrared light the camera detected, the neurons in their whiskers were stimulated. After a little less than a month, the rats were able to locate the ports when they were lit up by only infrared light.
According to the Scientific American:
Even after months of doing so, the rodents were able to respond to whisker neuron stimulation in addition to the infrared light, which suggests that sensory neurons can, when necessary, respond to multiple types of cues. This approach could help scientists create “sensory channels” for prosthetics users that provide constant sensory feedback to and from artificial limbs, facilitating control.
“The change in their behavior suggested that [the rats] had assimilated the information as a new modality,” researcher Miguel Nicolelis said in an interview with the Duke Chronicle. “They were essentially feeling the infrared light. . . and could move towards it to collect a reward.”
If able to teach “new modalities” in other mammals, this “feeling” could mean not just enhanced senses but sixth senses for humans, which could help patients with prostheses feel through them.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
And, just like Superman, this could also potentially lead to X-ray vision.
