MIT scientists solve the mysterious problem of Molyneux

In 1688, the Irish scientist William Molyneux posed in a letter toJohn Locke the following problem: if a person blind from birthbecomes the adult view and see a cube and a sphere, geometric shapes used to know and name recognition thanks to the touchWould it be able to tell by sight what I know identify with their hands? An affirmative answer, according to Molyneux, we meanthat a concept-independent innate sense "of certain concepts,such as the sphere.

Three centuries later, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology (MIT) have the problem of Molyneuxconseguidoresolver studying a group of Indian children born blind,aged between 8 and 17, who had recovered his sight after anoperation. As they explain in the journal Nature NeurosciencePawas Sinha and his colleagues, subjects initially failed to recognize the look immediately to what previously had beentouched with your hands, indicating that the brain does not create asingle representation of things relating different types of sensory information in this case, visual and tactile. However, acquired thisskill at an amazing speed in a few days of practice, suggesting thatour brain has more plasticity than previously thought even after the first years of life.

Thanks to Muyinteresante