Active sensory substitution allows fast learning via effective motor-sensory strategies

Summary We examined the development of new sensing abilities in adults by training participants to perceive remote objects through their fingers. Using an Active-Sensing based sensory Substitution device (ASenSub), participants quickly learned to perceive fast via the new modality and preserved their high performance for more than 20 months. Both sighted and blind participants exhibited almost complete transfer of performance from 2D images to novel 3D physical objects. Perceptual accuracy and speed using the ASenSub were, on average, 300% and 600% better than previous reports for 2D images and 3D objects. This improvement is attributed to the ability of the participants to employ their own motor-sensory strategies. Sighted participants dominant strategy was based on motor-sensory convergence on the most informative regions of objects, similarly to fixation patterns in vision. Congenitally, blind participants did not show such a tendency, and many of their exploratory procedures resembled those observed with natural touch.