Core Concepts in Perception 2018

Core Concepts in Perception

Most of us think of sensation and perception as effortless. We see, feel hear, touch and smell without conscious difficulty, while other brain functions like language and memory seem to place much larger demands on our cognitive function, and may seem more prone to disorder. However, half of the human brain is devoted to sensory perception.

In this class students will deepen their knowledge of the structure and function of the nervous system, behavioral and neural measures of sensory function, and the relation between biological systems, neural processing mechanisms, and perception. The class will be taught from a multidisciplinary perspective that will include clinical and developmental perspectives on visual processing.

Every few weeks we will cover a different topic in Sensation and Perception. We will begin by reviewing the basic science on that topic using review papers or advanced textbook chapters. Later classes on that topic will be more focused on theory.

I do also expect that all students in the class will have done the readings. Students will submit written questions for discussion in class beforehand. Course grades will be based on the submitted written questions, class presentations and a paper or project to be discussed with the instructor.

Papers can be downloaded from here (currently not complete since only includes papers that I am sure aren’t going to be switched).

Instructor: Ione Fine
Class times: Tues/Thurs 2:30-4:50
Classroom: Guthrie Room 079
Office: Guthrie 233
Email: ionefine uw

27th September: Retina I

Guest discussion leader: Mike Manookin (Asst. Professor UW Department of Ophthalmology)

  • Wandell (1995) Foundations of vision. Chapters 1 – 3, 5
  • Field and Chichilnisky (2007) Information Processing in the Primate Retina: Circuitry and Coding. Annual Review of Neuroscience.
  • Gollisch and Meister (2010) Eye Smarter than Scientists Believed: Neural Computations in Circuits of the Retina. Neuron:150-164.

2nd October: Retina II

Guest lecture: Mike Manookin (Asst. Professor UW Department of Ophthalmology)

4th October : V1 Circuits I

  • Wandell (1995) Foundations of vision. Chapter 6
  • Carandini and Heeger (2012) Normalization as a canonical neural computation. Nat Rev Neurosci:51-62.
  • Callaway (1998) Local Circuits in Primary Visual Cortex of the Macaque Monkey. Annual Review of Neuroscience:47-74.

9th October: V1 circuits II

11th October: NO CLASS

16th October:BARLOW!

  • Barlow (1972) Single units and sensation: a neuron doctrine for perceptual psychology? Perception:371-394.

18th October: NO CLASS

23th October: Attention

Guest discussion leader: Geoffrey Boynton (Professor UW Department of Psychology)Reynolds and Heeger (2009) The normalization model of attention. Neuron:168-185.

  • Petersen and Posner (2012) The Attention System of the Human Brain: 20 Years After. Annual Review of Neuroscience:73-89.
  • Desimone and Duncan (1995) Neural Mechanisms of Selective Visual Attention. Annual Review of Neuroscience:193-222.

25th October: MRI Imaging I

30th October : MRI Imaging II

1st November: Motion

Guest discussion leader: Michael Beyeler (Postdoc: UW Department of Psychology)

  • Wandell (1995) Foundations of vision. Chapter 10
  • Adelson and Bergen (1985) Spatiotemporal energy models for the perception of motion. J Opt Soc Am A:284-299.
  • Rust et al. (2006) How MT cells analyze the motion of visual patterns. Nat Neurosci:1421-1431.
  • Beyeler et al. (2016) 3D Visual Response Properties of MSTd Emerge from an Efficient, Sparse Population Code. The Journal of Neuroscience:8399-8415.

6th November: Complicated stuff in Ventral Cortex

  • Kanwisher and Dilks (2013) The Functional Organization of the Ventral Visual Pathway in Humans. The New Visual Neurosciences.
  • Rust (2014) Population representations: implicit, explicit, and invariant. The Cognitive Neurosciences.

8th November: Adaptation

  • Webster (2015) Visual Adaptation. Annual Review of Vision Science:547-567.
  • Snow et al. (2017) Adaptation in the visual cortex: a case for probing neuronal populations with natural stimuli [version 1; referees: 4 approved]. F1000Research.

13th November: Reading

Guest discussion leader: Alex White 

  • Wandell et al. (2012) Learning to see words. Annu Rev Psychol:31-53.
  • Schlaggar and McCandliss (2007) Development of Neural Systems for Reading. Annual Review of Neuroscience:475-503.

15th November: Cortical specification

  • Dooley and Krubitzer (2013) Cortical plasticity within and across lifetimes: how can development inform us about phenotypic transformations? Front Hum Neurosci.
  • Pascual-Leone et al. (2001) The metamodal organization of the brain. Prog Brain Res. 2001;134:427-45.
  • Dehaene and Cohen (2007) Cultural Recycling of Cortical Maps. Neuron:384-398.

20th November. NO CLASS

22nd November. NO CLASS

27th November: Molecular models of plasticity

  • Bavelier et al. (2010) Removing brakes on adult brain plasticity: from molecular to behavioral interventions. J Neurosci:14964-14971.
  • Hensch and Quinlan (2018) Critical periods in amblyopia. Visual Neuroscience:E014-E014.

 

4th December: AUDITION I

Guest lecture: Andrew Brown (Assistant Professor, Speech and Hearing)

  • PAPERS TBD

[[6th December: AUDITION II

Guest discussion leader: KC Lee (Professor, Speech and Hearing) 

Bizley and Cohen (2013) The what, where and how of auditory-object perception. Nat Rev Neurosci:693-707.

Topics we never did

REFERENCES

Adelson EH, Bergen JR (1985) Spatiotemporal energy models for the perception of motion. J Opt Soc Am A 2:284-299.
Atick JJ (2011) Could information theory provide an ecological theory of sensory processing? Network: Computation in Neural Systems 22:4-44.
Barlow HB (1972) Single units and sensation: a neuron doctrine for perceptual psychology? Perception 1:371-394.
Bavelier D, Levi DM, Li RW, Dan Y, Hensch TK (2010) Removing brakes on adult brain plasticity: from molecular to behavioral interventions. J Neurosci 30:14964-14971.
Bedny M (2017) Evidence from Blindness for a Cognitively Pluripotent Cortex. Trends Cogn Sci 21:637-648.
Beyeler M, Dutt N, Krichmar JL (2016) 3D Visual Response Properties of MSTd Emerge from an Efficient, Sparse Population Code. The Journal of Neuroscience 36:8399-8415.
Bizley JK, Cohen YE (2013) The what, where and how of auditory-object perception. Nat Rev Neurosci 14:693-707.
Callaway EM (1998) Local Circuits in Primary Visual Cortex of the Macaque Monkey. Annual Review of Neuroscience 21:47-74.
Carandini M, Heeger DJ (2012) Normalization as a canonical neural computation. Nat Rev Neurosci 13:51-62.
Dehaene S, Cohen L (2007) Cultural Recycling of Cortical Maps. Neuron 56:384-398.
Desimone R, Duncan J (1995) Neural Mechanisms of Selective Visual Attention. Annual Review of Neuroscience 18:193-222.
Dooley J, Krubitzer L (2013) Cortical plasticity within and across lifetimes: how can development inform us about phenotypic transformations? Front Hum Neurosci 7.
Field GD, Chichilnisky EJ (2007) Information Processing in the Primate Retina: Circuitry and Coding. Annual Review of Neuroscience 30.
Fine I, Park J-M (2018) Blindness and Human Brain Plasticity. Annual Review of Vision Science 4:null.
Fine I, Wade AR, Brewer AA, May MG, Goodman DF, Boynton GM, Wandell BA, MacLeod DI (2003) Long-term deprivation affects visual perception and cortex. Nat Neurosci 6:915-916.
Gollisch T, Meister M (2010) Eye Smarter than Scientists Believed: Neural Computations in Circuits of the Retina. Neuron 65:150-164.
Hensch TK, Quinlan EM (2018) Critical periods in amblyopia. Visual Neuroscience 35:E014-E014.
Kanwisher N, Dilks DD (2013) The Functional Organization of the Ventral Visual Pathway in Humans. In: The New Visual Neurosciences (Chalupa LM, Werner JS, eds).
Lewis TL, Maurer D (2005) Multiple sensitive periods in human visual development: evidence from visually deprived children. Dev Psychobiol 46:163-183.
Olshausen BA, Field DJ (1996) Emergence of simple-cell receptive field properties by learning a sparse code for natural images. Nature 381:607.
Pascual-Leone A, Amedi A, Fregni F, Merabet LB (2005) The plastic human brain cortex. Annu Rev Neurosci 28:377-401.
Petersen SE, Posner MI (2012) The Attention System of the Human Brain: 20 Years After. Annual Review of Neuroscience 35:73-89.
Reynolds JH, Heeger DJ (2009) The normalization model of attention. Neuron 61:168-185.
Rust N (2014) Population representations: implicit, explicit, and invariant. In: The Cognitive Neurosciences, 5th Edition (Gazzaniga MS, Mangun GR, eds). Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press.
Rust NC, Mante V, Simoncelli EP, Movshon JA (2006) How MT cells analyze the motion of visual patterns. Nat Neurosci 9:1421-1431.
Schlaggar BL, McCandliss BD (2007) Development of Neural Systems for Reading. Annual Review of Neuroscience 30:475-503.
Snow M, Coen-Cagli R, Schwartz O (2017) Adaptation in the visual cortex: a case for probing neuronal populations with natural stimuli [version 1; referees: 4 approved]. F1000Research 6.
Wandell B (1995) Foundations of vision. Sunderland, Mass: Sinauer Associates.
Wandell BA, Rauschecker AM, Yeatman JD (2012) Learning to see words. Annu Rev Psychol 63:31-53.
Webster MA (2015) Visual Adaptation. Annual Review of Vision Science 1:547-567.