They implanted detectors for invisible infrared light into the part of rats’ brains that control tactile feeling.
When the light was shone, the animals responded by preening their whiskers, indicating that they thought they were being touched. They soon began to detect the source of the ‘contact’ and move towards the signal.
The team at Duke University, North Carolina, said that – for the first time in adult animals – their other senses were not affected but simply augmented.
Neurobiologist Miguel Nicolelis said: ‘We didn’t use the skin to deliver this signal ... the animal is feeling light, not seeing light. It’s very interesting.’
He added the technology could one day be used to help the blind or to allow paralysed individuals to feel objects.
Dr Nicolelis also claimed the concept had been extended to ‘brain-to-brain interface’ meaning the rats could carry out a form of telepathy.
Quizzed as to the exact nature of the research he declared: ‘It is an interface that no one has dreamed could be done.’
He added: ‘I’m not a Catholic, but I give you my word it is much better than the [announcement of a new] Pope’.
Speaking about creating the ability in adult rats to touch infrared light, Dr Nicolelis said he hoped that one day the technology could be used to allow paralysed individuals who have been fitted with prosthetics to feel objects once again.
‘What we did here was to demonstrate that we could create a new sense in rats by allowing them to “touch” infrared light that mammals cannot detect,’ he said.
In the experiment, published in the journal Nature Communications and announced at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual conference in Boston, six rats were fitted with the infrared detectors.
When the lights were turned on, the rodents began preening their whiskers, indicating they thought they were being touched. But they soon began to interpret where the source of the ‘touch’ came from and moved towards the signal.
‘They are learning. At the start they are rubbing their whiskers with their forepaws,’ said Dr Nicolelis.
‘After a few weeks they develop the scanning behaviour, scanning the head in search for the light, but now it’s not something that bothers them in terms of their whiskers.
‘It’s like driving a car or riding a bike. My suspicion is that these animals are feeling touch, it's different from regular touch in that he is projecting the feeling of touch, not from his body, but to the external world.’
In future, the technique indicated humans who cannot see because the part of their brain responsible for sight is damaged could be helped through a device implanted in another part.
Co-author Eric Thomson said: ‘The philosophy of the field of brain-machine interfaces has until now been to attempt to restore a motor function lost to lesion or damage of the central nervous system.
‘This is the first paper in which a neuroprosthetic device was used to augment function, literally enabling a normal animal to acquire a sixth sense.’
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