Practice question · Multiple choice
A child with an untreated squint in early childhood can end up with permanently reduced vision in that eye, even though the eye itself is healthy. Why is the timing decisive?
Hints
- The eye is fine. Ask where the loss actually is.
- Two inputs compete for the same cortex. What happens if one is quieter during the window?
Show the answer
A. Because territory is allocated by competition during a critical period
Why
The eye is healthy and the cortex has been reassigned: inputs compete for territory during a developmental window, and the weaker one is outbid. Hubel and Wiesel's cats showed the mechanism, and it is why amblyopia is treated urgently in early childhood and is close to untreatable later.
Practise Neuroplasticity
The app has 4 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Psychology I is free to start.
More questions on Neuroplasticity
- Sort each fact by whether plasticity is greatest early in life or continues into adulthood.
- Match each concrete example to the plasticity mechanism it illustrates.
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- Select every statement that is TRUE about neuroplasticity.
- Order the events of cortical remapping after the loss of a limb.
- Synaptic pruning removes connections that go unused, and a child's brain has far more synapses than an…
- Because plasticity is greatest early in life, the adult brain cannot form or strengthen any new connections…