Abstract
Most discussions of neural plasticity in the context of the Molyneux question focus on changes in the visual cortex, early on during critical periods, or post-surgery after patients are given sight. There are good reasons, based on enactive approaches to perception to ask about plastic changes in the dorsal visual pathway and motor control areas. This essay explores the implications of such changes for the Molyneux question.
References
Atkinson, J., Braddick, O., & Bremner, G. (1989). Development of basic visual functions (A. Slater, Ed.; pp. 7–42). Lawrence Erlbaum.
Beyeler, M., Rokem, A., Boynton, G. M., & Fine, I. (2017). Learning to see again: Biological constraints on cortical plasticity and the implications for sight restoration technologies. Journal of Neural Engineering, 14(5), 051003. https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-2552/aa795e
Cassirer, E., Gay, P., & Cassirer, E. (1951). The philosophy of the Enlightenment (F. C. A. Koelln & J. P. Pettegrove, Trans.). Princeton University Press.
Chebat, D.-R., Schneider, F. C., & Ptito, M. (2020). Spatial competence and brain plasticity in congenital blindness via sensory substitution devices. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 14, 815. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2020.00815
Chen, J., Wu, E.-D., Chen, X., Zhu, L.-H., Li, X., Thorn, F., Ostrovsky, Y., & Qu, J. (2016). Rapid integration of tactile and visual information by a newly sighted child. Current Biology, 26(8), 1069–1074. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.02.065
Cheselden, W. (1728). VII. An account of some observations made by a young gentleman, who was born blind, or lost his sight so early, that he had no remembrance of ever having seen, and was couch’d between 13 and 14 Years of age. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 35(402), 447–450. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1727.0038
Chong, I., & Proctor, R. W. (2020). On the evolution of a radical concept: Affordances according to gibson and their subsequent use and development. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15(1), 117–132. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619868207
Cole, J. (1995). Pride and a daily marathon (1st MIT Press ed). MIT Press.
Degenaar, M. (1996). Molyneux’s problem: Three centuries of discussion on the perception of forms. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Diderot, D. (1977). Letter on the blind. In M. J. Morgan (Ed.), Molyneux’s question: Vision, touch, and the philosophy of perception (pp. 31–58). Cambridge University Press.
Dobelle, Wm. H. (2000). Artificial vision for the blind by connecting a television camera to the visual cortex: ASAIO Journal, 46(1), 3–9. https://doi.org/10.1097/00002480-200001000-00002
Evans, G. (1985). Molyneux’s question. In G. Evans (Ed.), Collected papers. Oxford University Press.
Ferretti, G. (2018). Two visual systems in Molyneux subjects. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 17 (4), 643–679. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-017-9533-z
Fine, I., Wade, A. R., Brewer, A. A., May, M. G., Goodman, D. F., Boynton, G. M., Wandell, B. A., & MacLeod, D. I. A. (2003). Long-term deprivation affects visual perception and cortex. Nature Neuroscience, 6(9), 915–916. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1102
Gallagher, S. (2005). How the body shapes the mind. Oxford University Press.
Gallagher, S. (2022). Bodily self-awareness and body-schematic processes. In A. J. T. Alsmith & M. R. Longo (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Bodily Awareness (1st ed., pp. 137–149). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429321542-14
Gallagher, S., & Cole, J. (1995). Gallagher, s. And cole, j. 1995. Body schema and body image in a deafferented subject. Journal of Mind and Behavior, 16, 369–390.
Hallett, M. (1999). Review : Plasticity in the human motor system. The Neuroscientist, 5(5), 324–332. https://doi.org/10.1177/107385849900500518
Held, R., Ostrovsky, Y., De Gelder, B., Gandhi, T., Ganesh, S., Mathur, U., & Sinha, P. (2011). The newly sighted fail to match seen with felt. Nature Neuroscience, 14(5), 551–553. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2795
Hubel, D. H., & Wiesel, T. N. (1963). Receptive fields of cells in striate cortex of very young, visually inexperienced kittens. Journal of Neurophysiology, 26(6), 994–1002. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.1963.26.6.994
Huber, E., Webster, J. M., Brewer, A. A., MacLeod, D. I. A., Wandell, B. A., Boynton, G. M., Wade, A. R., & Fine, I. (2015). A lack of experience-dependent plasticity after more than a decade of recovered sight. Psychological Science, 26(4), 393–401. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614563957
Jacob, P., & Jeannerod, M. (2003). Ways of seeing. The scope and limits of visual cognition. Oxford University Press.
Jacomuzzi, A. C., Kobau, P., & Bruno, N. (2003). Molyneux’ question redux. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 2(4), 255–280. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:PHEN.0000007370.68536.2d
James, W. (1950). The principles of psychology. Dover.
Jeannerod, M. (1996). The cognitive neuroscience of action. Blackwell.
Landau, B., Gleitman, H., & Spelke, E. (1981). Spatial knowledge and geometric representation in a child blind from birth. Science, 213(4513), 1275–1278. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.7268438
Leibniz, G. W. (1896). New essays concerning human understanding (A. G. Langley, Trans.). Macmillan & Co.
Locke, J. (1979). An essay concerning human understanding. Clarendon Press.
Meltzoff, A. N. (1993). Molyneux’s babies: Cross-modal perception, imitation, and the mind of the preverbal infant. In N. Eilan, R. Mccarthy, & B. Brewer (Eds.), Spatial representation: Problems in philosophy and psychology (pp. 219–235). Basil Blackwell.
Meltzoff, A. N., & Borton, R. W. (1979). Intermodal matching by human neonates. Nature, 282(5737), 403–404. https://doi.org/10.1038/282403a0
Merleau-Ponty, M. (2012). Phenomenology of perception (D. A. Landes, Trans.). Routledge.
Miall, R. C., Afanasyeva, D., Cole, J. D., & Mason, P. (2021). Perception of body shape and size without touch or proprioception: Evidence from individuals with congenital and acquired neuropathy. Experimental Brain Research, 239(4), 1203–1221. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-021-06037-4
Milner, D., & Goodale, M. (2006). The visual brain in action. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198524724.001.0001
Noë, A. (2004). Action in perception. MIT Press.
Noë, A. (2011). Perception without representation. In N. Gangodadhyay, M. Madary, & F. Spicer (Eds.), Perception, action, and consciousness (pp. 245–256). Oxford University Press.
Noë, A. (2012). Varieties of presence. Harvard University Press.+
Occelli, V. (2020). Molyneux’s question and neuroscience of vision. In G. Ferretti & B. Glenney (Eds.), Molyneux’s Question and the History of Philosophy (pp. 216–234). Routledge.
Ortiz-Terán, L., Ortiz, T., Perez, D. L., Aragón, J. I., Diez, I., Pascual-Leone, A., & Sepulcre, J. (2016). Brain plasticity in blind subjects centralizes beyond the modal cortices. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2016.00061
Renault, A. G., Auvray, M., Parseihian, G., Miall, R. C., Cole, J., & Sarlegna, F. R. (2018). Does proprioception influence human spatial cognition? A study on individuals with massive deafferentation. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1322. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01322
Rode, G., Lacour, S., Jacquin-Courtois, S., Pisella, L., Michel, C., Revol, P., Alahyane, N., Luauté, J., Gallagher, S., Halligan, P., Pélisson, D., & Rossetti, Y. (2015). Long-term sensorimotor and therapeutical effects of a mild regime of prism adaptation in spatial neglect. A double-blind RCT essay. Annals of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, 58(2), 40–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rehab.2014.10.004
Rossetti, Y., Jacquin-Courtois, S., Calabria, M., Michel, C., Gallagher, S., Honoré, J., Luaute, J., Farnè, A., Pisella, L., & Rode, G. (2015). Testing cognition and rehabilitation in unilateral neglect with wedge prism adaptation: Multiple interplays between sensorimotor adaptation and spatial cognition.
Sann, C., & Streri, A. (2007). Perception of object shape and texture in human newborns: Evidence from cross modal transfer tasks. Developmental Science, 10(3), 399–410. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2007.00593.x
Sann, C., & Streri, A. (2008). The limits of newborn’s grasping to detect texture in a cross-modal transfer task. Infant Behavior and Development, 31(3), 523–531. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2008.03.001
Schwenkler, J. (2012). On the matching of seen and felt shape by newly sighted subjects. I-Perception, 3(3), 186 188. https://doi.org/10.1068/i0525ic#
Senden, M. von. (1962). Space and sight: The perception of space and shape in the congenitally blind before and after operation. Philosophy, 37 (139), 80–81.
Slater, A. (1989). Visual memory and perception in early infancy. In A. Slater & G. Bremner (Eds.), Infant development (pp. 43–71). Erlbaum.
Slater, A., & Morison, V. (1985a). Selective adaptation cannot account for early infant habituation: A response to dannemiller and banks. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly of Behavior and Development, 31, 99–103.
Slater, A., & Morison, V. (1985b). Shape constancy and slant perception at birth. Perception, 14(3), 337–344. https://doi.org/10.1068/p140337
Slater, A., Morison, V., & Rose, D. (1983). Perception of shape by the new-born baby. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 1, 135–142.
Streri, A. (1987). Tactile discrimination of shape and intermodal transfer in 2‐ to 3‐month‐old infants. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 5(3), 213–220. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-835X.1987.tb01056.x
Streri, A., & Gentaz, E. (2003). Cross-modal recognition of shape from hand to eyes in human newborns. Somatosensory & Motor Research, 20(1), 13–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/0899022031000083799
Streri, A., & Gentaz, E. (2004). Cross-modal recognition of shape from hand to eyes and handedness in human newborns. Neuropsychologia, 42(10), 1365–1369. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2004.02.012
Toribio, J. (2020). Molyneux’s question and perceptual judgments. In G. Ferretti & B. Glenney (Eds.), Molyneux’s Question and the History of Philosophy (pp. 266–283). Routledge.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2024 Shaun Gallagher