Blakemore & Cooper (background) Flashcards
What did Blakemore & Cooper interested in investigating?
whether vision is innate or acquired
Why did they use cats as apart of their investigation?
because their brain is quite similar to humans in terms of structure
What are the two types of matter?
Grey Matter and White Matter
What does Grey Matter do?
transfers messages
What does White Matter do?
the wires (connections)
What is the key area of the brain in this study?
the LGN - Lateral Geniculate Nucleus
What is the role of the LGN?
controlling impulses, functions of sleep and memory (formed from sensory data)
How does the LGN work?
- relay centre for the visual pathway
- receives major sensory input from the retina
- signals the primary visual cortex where further visual processing occurs
How does visual neurons work?
they are very selective for the orientation of lines and edges in the visual field - preferred orientations of different cells are distributed
What has previous research found in regards to kittens’ brains?
they have neuroplasticity
What is plasticity?
the brains ability to change shape due to experience therefore restructure itself based on environmental demands
What ability do cats possess?
visual recognition memory and have the flexibility of cerebral encoding from visual information
What previous experimenters is the Blakemore and Cooper study based on?
Hirsch and Spinelli (1970)
What did Hirsch and Spinelli do?
raised kittens with one eye viewing vertical stripes and the other eye viewing horizontal stripes
What did Hirsch and Spinelli find?
21 neurons with elongated receptive fields were all monocularly driven - orientation closely matched pattern experienced by that eye
