Yes, the findings in this study imply exactly that other parts of cortex (or indeed, other parts of the brain) assume the job of learning. However, we cannot know the opposite: whether the whisker bit of sensory cortex is involved in learning at all, even when intact.

Hong and colleagues finding that performance recovers very quickly after the whisker bit of sensory cortex is damaged suggest that it really isn’t involved, and other parts of the brain take the lead in learning the task.