[Emilio Romero (OP)]

When someone looses a sense (sight, for instance) do the other senses really become sharper or the subject just pays more attention to them?

Emilio

[Soul Surfer]

My guess is that some of the brains unused processin capacity gets diverted from the unavaiable sense and so more analysis capacity is avaiable rather than any improverment in specific performance

[Chemistry4me]

Just going a bit off topic, you might be interested to know that a monkey was raised from birth to 6 months of age with one eyelid closed. The animal permanently loses useful vision in that eye because of diminished use. This gives cellular meaning to the saying “use it or lose it”!

[Chemistry4me]

Also, about one-fourth of the brain is involved in visual processing, more than for any other sense. So if you lost your sight, there is one-fourth of the brain that is not being used!