A new study shows that individual differences in brain structure, particularly in the visual cortex, may be shaped by personal experiences and how we use our brains. Researchers found that people who lose central vision and adapt to using peripheral vision develop more individualized neural patterns, suggesting experience drives variability in brain organization and could inform personalized rehabilitation approaches.
A commentary on Dan Lloyd's connectionist network model of consciousness argues that his reasoning can be extended further to simpler systems, proposing that a thermostat—which takes input, performs nonlinear transformation, and produces output—could serve as a minimal model of conscious experience. The author suggests that even basic systems like thermostats, which can represent environmental distinctions such as hot and cold, may possess a form of simple phenomenology.