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Ocular Dominance Plasticity: The Visual Cortex Critical Period

Interactive 3D model of a cortical ocular-dominance map: deprive one eye, watch competitive Hebbian plasticity redistribute cortical territory, and see how perineuronal nets close the critical period — and how an enzyme (ChABC) can reopen it.

Cognitive Science3DAdvanced60 FPS

A grid of 484 visual-cortex "columns" rendered as an interactive 3D map, each holding a pair of synaptic weights competing for territory between the left and right eye under a normalized Hebbian learning rule. Deprive one eye and watch the cortex reorganize — but only as fast as the current plasticity rate allows, which this model gates by a simulated perineuronal-net "molecular brake" that thickens with cortical age exactly as it does in a real developing brain. Scrub the age slider to watch the critical period close, or flip on the ChABC toggle to digest the nets and reopen plasticity, echoing the real enzymatic experiments used to restore adult visual plasticity after early monocular deprivation.

⚙ Under the hood

A 3D grid of 484 cortical columns competes for ocular territory under a normalized Hebbian rule; deprive one eye, scrub cortical age to close the critical period, or digest perineuronal nets with ChABC to reopen plasticity.

neuroscienceocular dominancecritical periodHebbian learningsynaptic plasticityperineuronal nets

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install