How a Vision Disorder Led to Shocking Brain Science Discoveries | Mark Bear on Neuroplasticity

In this captivating episode, we explore how Mark Bear's personal experience with congenital nystagmus sparked a revolutionary career in neuroscience. Mark shares his remarkable journey from struggling with a visual impairment to making groundbreaking discoveries about how the brain processes visual information, including the identification of a previously unknown neural pathway discovered during his undergraduate years.

The conversation delves deep into the fascinating mechanics of human vision, explaining how our brains transform input from two separate eyes into one unified visual experience. Perhaps most intriguingly, Mark reveals critical insights about the brain's developmental windows, particularly how infants must learn to see during their first year of life and why this ability has a strict deadline around age seven. This episode offers a unique blend of personal narrative and cutting-edge neuroscience, illuminating the remarkable plasticity of the human brain and the time-sensitive nature of neural development.

02:18 Discovering the Visual Cortex
06:58 Understanding Vision and Visual Processing
14:47 Exploring Plasticity in the Visual System
29:12 The Role of Sleep and Hallucinations in Vision
34:07 Memory, Plasticity, and Neuromodulation
41:47 Experience-Dependent Plasticity and Learning
48:39 Evolutionary Insights from Primate and Cat Visual Systems
49:37 Unique Features of Mouse Visual System
50:52 Visual Evoked Potentials: Techniques and Discoveries
53:19 Stimulus Selective Response Plasticity
54:38 Behavioral and Electrophysiological Correlates of Learning
01:02:03 Declarative vs. Procedural Memory
01:03:54 Hippocampus and Memory Storage
01:18:55 Challenges and Future Directions in Neuroscience

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