We have long known that there is considerable neurological flexibility and self-compensating ability when it comes to processing sensory input. The eyes, for example, being merely optical devises receive images upside down and the brain then flips the image over for us. If one wears glasses designed to flip those initial sensory images right side up so that we then “see” the world upside down, eventually the brain compensates again and flips the mental image to its correct orientation.
The article tells of an experiment by which the subject could, like birds, sense direction as a result of a series of buzzers worn as a belt devised so that whatever buzzer faced north would sound. As the experiment progressed, “"I suddenly realized that my perception had shifted. I had some kind of internal map of the city in my head. I could always find my way home. Eventually, I felt I couldn't get lost, even in a completely new place," said the subject.
Direction isn't something humans can detect innately. Some birds can, of course, and for them it's no less important than taste or smell are for us. In fact, lots of animals have cool, "extra" senses. Sunfish see polarized light. Loggerhead turtles feel Earth's magnetic field. Bonnethead sharks detect subtle changes (less than a nanovolt) in small electrical fields. And other critters have heightened versions of familiar senses — bats hear frequencies outside our auditory range, and some insects see ultraviolet light.
We humans get just the five. But why? Can our senses be modified? Expanded? Given the right prosthetics, could we feel electromagnetic fields or hear ultrasound? The answers to these questions, according to researchers at a handful of labs around the world, appear to be yes.
Of course, Big GPS would probably resist making prosthetic direction sensors available, but the possible applications, both for the disabled or injured and for enhancing ‘normal’ sensation, are probably limitless. Neat stuff.
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