Blind rats were able to see using a special brain GPS-like device made by Japanese scientists, who hope that the invention will also help blind people in the future.
The scientists developed the magnetic brain implant to be mounted on the rats' head. It helped the blind rats to navigate through mazes nearly as good as non-blind rats.
Utilizing the compass-like device, the rats received electrical pulses that signaled which direction it was facing, according to Web MD.
Scientists then trained the blind rats to find their food in more complex mazes. With a little bit of practice and the help of the compass implant, the blind rats managed to solve each maze.
The performance of the blind rats were even really close to those of the rats with normal vision.
"We were surprised that rats can comprehend a new sense that had never been experienced or 'explained by anybody' and can learn to use it in behavioral tasks within only two to three days," said Yuji Ikegaya, the lead researcher of the study.
Ikegaya said that the brains of the blind rats were willing to be helped using the head mounted device, which was connected to two tungsten microelectrodes, according to Eurekalert.
Initially, the Japanese research team's goal was to help restore the blind rat's allocentric sense and not the vision itself. This sense allows humans and animals to determine where their body is within the environment.
The study, published in the Current Biology journal, shows that brains can adapt and expand the senses with the help of artificial sensors that detect other inputs.