Sensation and Perception: The Research of David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel & the History of Psychology

Perception is a unifying yet unique ability given to each individual. It creates an avenue for people to see things in the same light, yet simultaneously provides an escape from the confines of conformity and conventionality. The ability to perceive is often times simply related to ones individual values, or ideologies, however its origin stems far deeper than ones personality, its roots lie deep in the complex network of our biological makeup. It was this desire to understand the origins of such a unique and differentiating aspect of human life that enthralled the minds of David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel. Fascinated by the many facets of the mind, these two scientists spent years digging deep into the human brain, and searching for visual intelligence by way of endless experimentation.

David Hubel was born in 1926 in Windsor, Ontario. As the grandson of a successful pharmacist, Hubel began his journey toward scientific discovery early on in his childhood. Having attended Strathocona Academy in Outremont, Canada, Hubel was opened up to new experiences in various fields, however, his greatest education came from that of his father, a chemical engineer, who he plagued with questions and inquiries. Though his educational needs were endlessly meet by his love for academia and his father's consistent desire to share with him the wonders of science, Hubel credits his mother for his resolve and determination, who he says, instilled those priceless values within him from the start. Taking a liking to chemistry as a young boy, Hubel set up various experiments from shooting off a cannon with a mixture of potassium chlorate and sugar, to releasing a powerful hydrogen balloon. These mediocre and seemingly amateur experiments of his youth were important precursors to his prestigious scientific career.

Continuing his education as a young man, Hubel attended the prestigious Canadian institution of McGill College, where he studied math and physics with honors, discovering his enjoyment in solving problems over merely learning facts. Graduating in 1947, without taking a single biology course, Hubel applied to the Medical School at McGill and was accepted, much to his surprise and dismay. Upon initial attendance, the now, med student, found the memorization of every muscular insertion in the body to be slightly overwhelming and as a result found himself spending summers at the Neurological Institute where he picked up his affinity and fascination for the nervous system.

After years of hospital training and eventually coming to the realization that his interest in practicing clinical medicine had surely diminished, Hubel left Canada for the United States in 1954, for a Neurology year at Johns Hopkins where he was promptly drafted into the army as a doctor. However, rather than serving as a detour from his studies, his assigned location of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Neuropsychiatry Division actually served as door of opportunity and growth. At the ripe age of 29, Hubel had the unique and vital chance to begin his desire for research. Working with a group of young and ambitious neuroscientists, he began collaborating for six months on a spinal cord project. Hubel's main project at Walter Reed was, what he stated as, a comparison of spontaneous firing of single cortical cells in sleeping and walking cats. He began recording from the visual cortex. Devising a method in recording from freely moving cats and to create a tungsten microelectrode that could withstand enough to penetrate the dura, was first necessary. This challenge alone took an entire year of work, however such a lofty accomplishment of establishing the ability to record for a single cell in the cortex of a cat in action proved to be well worth the time.

In 1958, Hubel moved to the Wilmer Institute and began an extensive collaboration with Torsten Wiesel. In 1959, just a year after joining the laboratory, the entire staff moved to Harvard Medical School. After five years of research and advancement, the prestigious university established the laboratory as its new Department of Neurobiology. Working with some of the greatest minds of his time, including Stephen Kuffler, Edward Kravitz and others, Hubel gained ample experience and knowledge. However, it was his twenty years of working side by side with Torsten Wiesel that truly allowed him to grow beyond the confines of his previous accomplishments and distinguish him from the norm of scientific society.

Torsten Wiesel himself originated from Uppsala, Sweden. He was born in 1924 as a son of a renowned psychiatrist. Wiesel attended Whitlockska Samskolan, a private school located in the heart of the city. Being a rather lazy and troublesome student, Wiesel was mainly interested in sports, over academia. However, where he was interested, he always excelled, thus becoming the president of his high school's athletic association. Taking a dramatic turn in character at the age of 17, Wiesel became very serious and studious young man who soon would grow into a serious and studious medical student. Through lectures and basic learning, he became increasingly interested in the workings of the nervous system. Having learned much from his father, Wiesel also pursued the path of psychiatry, working in several mental hospitals.

In 1954, following the completion of his studies, Wiesel continued his basic research on neurophsiology. Just a year after that, Wiesel was invited to attend Johns Hopkins Medical School, specifically the Wilmer Institute. He then meet David Hubel just four years after that, and the two joined, working to explore the receptive field properties of cells in the central visual pathways. In 1959, the laboratory moved to Harvard Medical School where the work of Wiesel and Hubel continued and flourished up to the Nobel Prize level in 1981.

The Nobel Prize was specifically awarded to the two ambitious scientists on the account of their "discoveries concerning information processing in the visual system." One may wonder then, regardless of their backgrounds and histories, aside from their prior accomplishments or recognitions, what it was that put these two over top and into the elite. Through years and years of research, Hubel and Wiesel discovered neurons that are strongly excited by oriented bars of light and edge type patterns. For each location in the visual field, Hubel and Wiesel found orientationally selective neurons with receptive fields at that location for each possible orientation. Each point of the field of view has simple cells which search for their specific optimal line, one wanting a vertical, the other a horizontal, and the third, an oblique. It takes, literally, hundreds of millions of neurons to produce all the orientations of lines represented by each field of view. The entire process itself is seemingly straightforward. When an image is finished being processed, it sends the results to the brain through the optic nerve, and then through the LGN (Lateral geniculate nucleus), then finally to the visual cortex where lines are first produced before an actual perception is created.

Though the stated may seem as though its merely scientific jargon, its importance in the field of psychology is immeasurable. Hubel and Wiesel looked into the scientific aspect of what society so often considers its jewel, perception. Through stimulation and sensation, these two men uncovered the origin of one's perception as how one views things, not merely from a basic level, but from the foundation of brain activity, and from the depths of the visual cortex itself. By establishing the facts in which they did, a major feat in the realm of psychology was accomplished as they scientifically explained the reason behind perception and how it coordinates with the human body as well as human behavior by way of sensations. Psychologists are now able to better understand how people not only biologically see things, but how that biological reading, originating in the visual cortex, is transformed into emotional, sensational, or even societal perceptions. With such a massive connection bridged, the possibilities of continued understanding and study have reached a whole new level of promise. Understanding the human mind as a faction of the body in terms of its ability to not merely work as an intelligence center, but rather to communicate directly and effect less related aspects of human life, such as one's perception, is truly a major accomplishment. With a unique field of study such as perception and sensation, the discovered data is a diamond in the rough that surrounds a complex, intricate and ever baffling study of biological equations and behavioral mysteries.