Full Idea
The discovery that a single brain lesion can erase all knowledge of man-made artefacts, or all knowledge of animals, suggests that these categories somehow hard-wired into the brain - that we all have a set of 'memory pigeonholes'.
Clarification
A 'lesion' is damage
Gist of Idea
Brain lesions can erase whole categories of perception, suggesting they are hard-wired
Source
Rita Carter (Mapping the Mind [1998], p.190)
Book Reference
Carter,Rita: 'Mapping the Mind' [Phoenix 2000], p.190
A Reaction
Presumably something can become 'hard-wired' through experience, rather than from birth. The whole idea of 'hard-wired' seems misleading about the brain. What matters is that the brain physically constructs categories.