Björn Kindler

SenSub

Brain Plasticity and Sensory Substitution in Human Blindness SenSub (QLG3-CT-2000-01797)

A major question in the domain of sensory substitution is to understand the kind of percept generated by sensory substitution devices: is it similar to the one generated by a natural sensory modality (visual, tacile, auditory) or is it a totally new kind of perception? According to the sensory substitution theory, perceptual processing related to these substitutive stimuli should result in a visual-like perception. The main tasks of this project constists in analyzing: (a) the ongoing brain changes and (b) the links between sensory and congnitive brain representations, due to the utilization of a perceptual modality that is totally artificial and new to the subjects. To attain this objective, experimental psychology, neuroimaging and biomedical engineering techniques for sensory processing will be implemented.

The SenSub collaboration consisted of the following groups:

  • Laboratoire de Psychologie du Developpement (Coordinator)
    12, rue Goethe
    67000 Strasbourg, France
    Eliana Sampaio (eliana.sampaio(at)psycho-ulp.u-strasbg.fr)
  • Neural Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory
    University of Louvain (UCL)
    Avenue Hippocrate 54, UCL-54.46, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium
    Fax. 32-2-764.94 .22
    Claude Veraart (veraart@gren.ucl.ac.be)
  • Electronic Vision(s) Group Heidelberg University
    D-69120 Heidelberg
    Tel. 49 6221 54 4336
    Fax 49 6221 54 4345
    Karlheinz Meier (meierk(at)kip.uni-heidelberg.de)