It's funny, there's a game called Ring Runner: Flight of the Sages with an Alien species that cranked this concept to 11 to the point they were attempting to engineer a pathogen to cause other species to develop a particular gland that would render that species able to interact with them by way of psionic avatar.

The species was pictured as comically horrifying and ugly, but amongst themselves with a generous dose of handwavium, the gland basically normalized sensory experience of one another amongst the species.

http://ringrunner.net/

Cute and fun game, all told. A family work as I understand it. Always wished they'd have continued writing on it.