HONG KONG: A new study has found that a “sixth sense” could be helping blind rats “see” enough to navigate a maze, which could be a groundbreaking finding that could help blind humans in the future.
Scientists connected a digital compass to electrodes and attached them to the rats’ visual cortexes, essentially feeding them geomagnetic information and allowing the rodents to use that information to move through a maze just as fast as a rat that still had its vision, according to a Smithsonian report.
The study, which was published in New Scientist, noted that the rats were sent a pulse of electricity to its right visual cortex whenever it aligned its head to the north within 20 degrees, and a pulse was sent to its left visual cortex when it pointed south. This allowed the blind rats to figure out their surroundings without the need to see.
The results show that the brains of mammals are very adaptable, and it could mean that people could have geomagnetic sensors attached to their canes to enable them to get around without visual aids.
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