Brain Plasticity

In order for the tongue to be wired to the visual cortex, a few things would have to be augmented. Sensory input from the tongue would come to the brain via the parietal lobe (the sensory cortex) and then it would have to travel to the visual cortex (located in the occipital lobe), where the sensory input from the eyes goes. In order for these two areas of the brain to be connected, there would have to be neuron pathway between these two areas of the brain. The good thing about the proximity of the parietal lobe and the occipital lobe is that the neurons between these two areas are already close together. There will be less wiring for these neurons to do, so it wouldn't take as long for this process as if the sensory cortex was in the frontal lobe.

In order to get to the brain, the signals from the tongue would have to travel through the central nervous system and through the brain stem. The thalamus sends this signal to the parietal lobe, where the sensory cortex is located. Then, in the changed brain, the neurons transmit the signal to the occipital lobe and the visual cortex. This is how the tongue can see. Also, as the individual would keep using the tongue to see, the tongue part of the sensory cortex would expand so that it gets more accurate and eventually it would almost take over the visual cortex.