The Brain That Changes Itself (16)

In one ingenious experiment, Merzenich mapped a normal monkey's hand, then sewed together two of the monkey's fibers, so that both fingers moved as one. After several months of allowing the monkey to use its sewn figures, the monkey was remapped. The two maps of the originally separate fingers had now merged into a single map. If the experimenters touched any point on either finger, this new single map would light up. Because all the movements and sensations in those fingers always occurred simultaneously, they'd formed the same map. The experiment showed that timing of the input to the neurons in the map was the key to forming it --- neurons that fired together in time wired together to make one map.

这个实验设计的有缺陷，并不能证明“fire together, wire together”. 假设有两根不相连的手指，比如大拇指和无名指被同时刺激，是否他们的brain map也会组合成一片？在这个实验里时间并不是唯一的因素，两根手指位置上的相邻也是有作用的。我很难想像同时刺激一个人的舌头和手指能够使这两部分感官相对应的中枢连成一片，以造成触摸手指引起酸甜苦辣的感觉。如果能造成这样的结果，那减肥就是小菜一碟了。口腹之欲可以通过进食之外的其他途径解决。