There has been a theory that the weights for the neural connections get mostly shaped by the environment, but this research shows that there’s effectively firmware wiring that will emerge without any external stimulus.
That’s still interaction with the environment though, what this research shows is that even without any such interaction the structures form. So, they’re not shaped by the environment, but are a type of firmware that’s encoded within the genes.
Sure, it’s not a surprising finding since the environment is a stable selection pressure driving evolution. It’s still nice to have these studies to confirm our intuition on the subject.
Were they expecting developing brains to have zero
There has been a theory that the weights for the neural connections get mostly shaped by the environment, but this research shows that there’s effectively firmware wiring that will emerge without any external stimulus.
There has to be given organs are controlled by the brain pre-birth or at birth, and babies can hear sounds before they are born
That’s still interaction with the environment though, what this research shows is that even without any such interaction the structures form. So, they’re not shaped by the environment, but are a type of firmware that’s encoded within the genes.
Again, it’d be a shock if that didn’t happen
Sure, it’s not a surprising finding since the environment is a stable selection pressure driving evolution. It’s still nice to have these studies to confirm our intuition on the subject.