How seeing can change what you see

We sometimes take it for granted how the way we see enables us to perceive and interact with the world, but how our visual system works is amazing. It’s an intricately choreographed process – from the light that comes into our eyes, to the way that our brains carry that information and form it into an image we can understand. If brain cells are improperly connected during growth and development, or if part of the system is destroyed by injury, all kinds of visual havoc can be a result. But how does a brain get wired properly in the first place?

 In a paper in the Journal of Neuroscience last week, Professor Steve Van Hooser’s lab reported some of the effects of experience on development. The new paper shows evidence that neurons in all layers of the visual cortex aren’t just ‘born’ with the right connections between the parts of the brain that control vision. According to their data, the act of seeing itself makes changes in how the neurons process visual information. The lab is continuing their studies of brain circuits to uncover how, during development, the act of seeing changes how you see.
Clemens JM, Ritter NJ, Roy A, Miller JM, and Van Hooser SD. The Laminar Development of Direction Selectivity in Ferret Visual Cortex. J. Neurosci. 12 December 2012, 32(50): 18177-18185. 

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