Keywords: seeing with the brain, tactile stimulation, Tongue Display

We see with the brain, not the eyes (Bach-y-Rita, 1972); images that pass through
our pupils go no further than the retina. From there image information travels to
the rest of the brain by means of coded pulse trains, and the brain, being highly
plastic, can learn to interpret them in visual terms. Perceptual levels of the brain
interpret the spatially encoded neural activity, modified and augmented by
nonsynaptic and other brain plasticity mechanisms (Bach-y-Rita, 1972, 1995,
1999, in press). However, the cognitive value of that information is not merely a
process of image analysis. Perception of the image relies on memory, learning,
contextual interpretation (e.g., we perceive intent of the driver in the slight lateral
movements of a car in front of us on the highway), cultural, and other social factors
that are probably exclusively human characteristics that provide ?qualia?
(Bach-y-Rita, 1996b). This is the basis for our tactile vision substitution system
(TVSS) studies that, starting in 1963, have demonstrated that visual information
and the subjective qualities of seeing can be obtained tactually using sensory substitution
systems.