Tongue unit puts blind people in the picture

Tongue unit puts blind people in the picture

11 Jun 2004 - The Scotsman

Scientists have created a new device which will help blind people to see - by using their tongue. The Tongue Display Unit, developed by researchers at the University of Wisconsin, can activate areas which are normally reserved for visual information and are unused when someone suffers from congenital blindness.

Within the first few minutes of testing the prototype, subjects are able to build up a fairly clear picture of the letters placed in various positions and transmitted by electrical impulses to the device on their tongue.

Professor Maurice Ptito, who validated tests on the device, said: "The tongue will never replace the eye, but for people born blind the cerebral cortex, which is normally used for vision, is reactivated by this device. The electrical activity, recorded by a scan, is very clear about this."

Key to a long life

The day when people can eat their favourite foods, stay thin and live to be 120 without getting age-induced diabetes or cancer may be nearer than we think.

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology believe they've found the key to a long, lean, healthy life in a protein that controls whether a mammal stores fat or sheds it. The work could lead to drugs which mimic that protein, allowing people to get the longer lifespan and other benefits of extreme caloric reduction without negative side-effects.

One thing at a time

Researchers claim they have discovered why humans struggle when they attempt to do two things at once.

When it comes to executing simultaneous tasks, cognitive scientists have never been sure whether the brain has to perform one thought process at a time, or perform two at once but keep them separate.

But scientists observing subjects multi-tasking found no increase in the sort of activity that would be involved in keeping two thought processes separate. This suggests there are no complicated mechanisms allowing humans to perform two tasks at once. Instead, we have to perform the next task only after the last one is finished.

Sources: University of Montreal, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, American Physiological Society