Looks super cool. I read about Neural Pathways in grad school, and seeing all that theory in action feels great.
Scientists watch a memory form in the brain of a living fish
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Re: Scientists watch a memory form in the brain of a living fish
#32In fish... "Contrary to expectation, the synaptic strengths in the pallium remained about the same regardless of whether the fish learned anything. Instead, in the fish that learned, the synapses were pruned from some areas of the pallium — producing an effect “like cutting a bonsai tree,” Fraser said — and replanted in others." This is a very counter intuitive. So there are existing neural connections (formed someho…
I recall the experience of a blind adult getting surgery that allowed for vision, and describing the process of learning visual information gave some idea of what infants experience; first it is all brightness, or darkness, then very vague shapes and primary colors, eventually honing in on discrete objects and hues.
It makes more sense that, without any context, our brain can't just "add" a color to its repertoire, but must interpret some data within the context of existing 'thought'. Some things may be literally unimaginable without a framework of existing memories and experiences, or only possible through some recursive process "Oh so 'a' is 'like' xyz, that makes sense".
Re: Scientists watch a memory form in the brain of a living fish
#33Why didn't they try to create a good memory too, just to see if there appeared to be a difference in how it was created or stored?