Our genetic capacity for brain development can find its full expression only if circumstances are favourable. To illustrate this, just imagine a baby who was cared for in every way but kept in a dark room. After a year of such sensory deprivation the brain of this infant would not be comparable to those of others, no matter what his inherited potential. Despite perfectly good eyes at birth, without the stimulation of light waves, the thirty or so neurological units that together make up our visual sense would not develop. The neural components of vision already present at birth would atrophy
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