3 ms·
The brain is good at re-mapping things where it can make a distinction, but it seems to only learn distinctions in so-called "critical periods". See doi:10.1038
by wizzwizz4 3y ago
The brain is good at re-mapping things where it can make a distinction, but it seems to only learn distinctions in so-called "critical periods". See doi:10.1038/228477a0 for a famous 1970s experiment on the subject.
- lupire 3y agoThere are lots of examples. Phonemes for language and are a very common example of things that can't be learned easily or at all later in life. But huge changes like a major color might overcome that. Humans learn to recognize new major objects they've never seen before.
- wizzwizz4 3y agoHumans can learn to recognise new sensory modalities, too (see paragraph 4 of doi:10.3389/fnhum.2019.00443's introduction) – but only if there's hardware that responds to them. The question is whether the visual cortex is capable of making the distinctions. If colourblindness glasses (e.g. EnChroma®) work for you, then I suppose the answer is trivially "yes, because it already does" – and we should expect gene therapy to be useful. If there are people for whom those glasses don't do anything at all, I'd be more cautious.