Retraining the brain’s vision center to take action

"Neuroscientists have demonstrated the astounding flexibility of the brain by training neurons that normally process input from the eyes to develop new skills, in this case, to control a computer-generated tone.

The researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, Columbia University and the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown in Lisbon, Portugal, could just as easily have wired these neurons, located in the visual cortex, to operate a robotic arm or any other brain-machine interface, co-opting sensory neurons to do the work of motor neurons."