We live in a society that is based on vision. Visual information is used for orienting in our
environment, identifying objects in our surroundings, alerting us to important events that
require our attention, engaging in social interactions, and many more necessary functions so
we can efficiently function in everyday life. Similarly, audition is used for communication and
for guiding our attention to potentially important or even dangerous events (eg, the sound of
a nearing car). Thus, the loss of any of these modalities decreases the quality of life and …

Sažetak Restoration of sight in the blind or audition in the deaf involves great clinical and
scientific challenges. Despite intensive efforts and some successes, restoration of truly
functional sensory modalities using auditory neuroprostheses is still limited and for visual
neuroprostheses has not yet been achieved. This failure can be strongly attributed to the fact
that sensory loss typically triggers extensive plastic changes in the nervous system as a
whole which are still beyond our comprehension and control. This chapter focuses on …