Sensory Substitution is Substitution

Sensory substitution devices (SSDs) make use of one substituting modality (e.g. touch) to get access to environmental information normally accessed through another modality (e.g. vision). Based on behavioural and neuroimaging data, some authors have claimed that using a vision-substituting device results in visual perception. Reviewing these data, we contend that this claim is untenable. We argue (i) that the kind of information processed by a SSD is metamodal, so that it can be accessed through any sensory modality and (ii) that the phenomenology associated with the use of a SSD is best described in terms of spatial phenomenology, only.