Gary Cottrell gave a neat talk yesterday about his lab's computational models for vision. One comment that really stuck: the brain contains many similar structures. These structure apply similar algorithms and pass their output to each other.
It seems like redundancy and self similarity are big wins for us. This also supports the idea of Neuroplasticity which roughly says that the brain can reorganize itself to handle new environments. For example, some guys at MIT wired ferret retinal outputs into the auditory cortex. The ferrets learned how to see just fine. Also, people can see with their tongues. Those examples and more in this great Discover article. Thanks Mike.
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Hi Zachary.
This is an interesting observation. I'd reach about the ability for the brain to accept inputs from unexpected places and make sense of them, but I hadn't considered what this might infer on a structural level. It makes so much sense!
Martin
www.mindsparke.com
Brain Training Software
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