Word: wiesel
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...overall primary visual cortex, Hubel and Wiesel discovered, is composed of two systems of columns. One groups together cells recognizing steadily changing angles of orientation of bars and edges, while the other holds cells with the same eye preference. This architecture has since been found all along the cortex, even in areas having functions which are still unknown...
...this wasn't just a mysterious current moving through the brain," Wiesel says, "but a very, very precisely wired machine...
According to Hubel and Wiesel, their findings also shed light on the classic question of "nature vs. nurture"--whether perception and behavior are instinctive or learned in the environment. Since specific cells naturally recognize simple shapes, "it seems that at birth you are endowed with an eye for details," Wiesel says, adding, "The neuroconnectors are there...
...nurture these connection between the eye and visual cortex properly," if they are not used within a "critical period after birth, they will be lost," Wiesel says...
That discovery may aid the prevention of childhood blindness. And Wiesel says the idea of a "critical period" could perhaps apply to much more complicated brain function. "Deprivation of attention, emotion, what a mother provides for a child, emotional contact with siblings--there is evidence that kids lacking these things develop more slowly," he explains, adding, "Perhaps it is important to stimulate people to use their intellectual and emotional resources early...