History’s Top Brain Computation Insights: Day 16 16) Critical
periods of cortical development via competition (Hubel & Wiesel
– 1970) Hubel & Wiesel showed that the ocular dominance columns
they had discovered in cortex (see previous post) are organized
during a critical period of development. Keeping one eye of an
animal shut during the first few months of life made that animal
blind in that eye for the rest of its life. Keeping the eye shut
for the same amount of time later in life had no such effect.
Hubel & Wiesel found that the ocular dominance columns became
lopsided in such a case: The functional eye tended to take over
cortical space not used by the blind eye. This finding extended
Penfield's notion that the amount of cortical space dedicated to
a function determines its resolution. In this case, visual
acuity was decreased through smaller cortical space for the
unused eye. Importantly, this experiment illustrated that the
eyes compete for cortical space, with the most active eye
claiming the most spa