2 ms·
"It has been eye-opening to realize how powerfully my thinking is shaped by prior assumptions. My trust in textbook teachings blinded me to data that were right
by readthenotes1 4y ago
"It has been eye-opening to realize how powerfully my thinking is shaped by prior assumptions. My trust in textbook teachings blinded me to data that were right there in front of us. As time went on, our confidence in our data grew to the point that we eventually trusted it more than the prevailing neuroscience doctrine."
Science advances one gravestone at a time...
- tgv 4y agoNot in this case, it seems. At the end, the author mentions that the original image was never supposed to be taken very seriously. It was a coarse (my interpretation) model for teaching medical students.
- panxyh 4y agoAnd that should’ve been obvious to any sensible person, let alone a scientist or medical professional.
- tgv 4y agoIdk. The brain was (and really still is) very badly understood. But even back then, they already knew that nerves connected roughly in that area. Then a theory that posits a minimal topological mapping between the two makes sense. I can imagine the motor cortex evolving like that, or growing with the fetal development. So in the early days, this was a sensible model. It overstayed its welcome, as so many theories do. Many scientists still hold on to coarse brain regionality.