Feature Detectors

Feature Detectors are nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of a stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement (for visual stimuli). The nerve cells fire selectively in response to stimuli that have specific characteristics. Feature detectors were first discovered by David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel of Harvard University, which won them both the 1981 Nobel Prize. They are important for perception in the brain.

Experiments have suggested the existence of linguistic feature detectors for phonemes (Eimas & Corbit, 1973).