11. Development, Nature & Nurture II (2018)

The lecture explores the interplay between innate brain structures and experiential learning in shaping cognitive functions. It examines the degree to which face perception is innate, contrasting evidence from newborns and monkeys raised without exposure to faces. The discussion then shifts to how long-range structural connectivity influences brain wiring, highlighting research using diffusion imaging and tractography to predict the location of functional regions like the fusiform face area. The lecture uses the case of rewired ferrets to demonstrate how connectivity can causally determine cortical function, and the visual word form area to argue that experience shapes brain selectivity. It concludes by considering spatial representation and reorientation, presenting evidence from rodent and chick studies suggesting an innate basis for these abilities.