Our research on multi-sensory perception is based on the idea that sensory information does not have any inherent meaning. In other words, the brain creates our perceptual experience.

This means it is possible to substitute a lost or absent sense (such as vision in acquired and congenital blindness), by providing the person with a means to gain the same information from the world through another of their senses. Sometimes unpleasant experiences, such as pain or nausea, might arise when normal sensory information is misinterpreted by the brain.

Understanding how the brain can reorganise when a sense is missing or substituted and how sensory misinterpretation occurs could lead to the development of methods to treat or reverse such conditions.