Profile of Charles D. Gilbert.

Neuroscientists once thought that the brain’s wiring was fixed in early life, but the pioneering research of National Academy of Sciences member Charles Gilbert continues to show that the adult brain is remarkably dynamic. Evidence supporting that view is presented in Gilbert and colleagues’ studies of the neural mechanisms underlying visual perception, learning, and memory. Gilbert, the Arthur and Janet Ross Professor of Neuroscience at The Rockefeller University, and his team have discovered long-range, lateral neuronal connections within the visual cortex and have determined that this region of cells at the back of the brain is capable of altering its functional properties and circuitry. Gilbert and colleagues’ latest work strengthens evidence for a new general theory of brain function that helps explain the brain’s plasticity and provides insight into how recovery may occur following certain lesions and neurodegenerative disease, such as macular degeneration.