SYSTEMS NEUROSCIENCE N623 - Week 4
Visual Submodalities and Higher Visual Function

Nobel(s) of the Week - When Laureates decide to tackle the Mind

  • 1962- Francis Harry Compton Crick, "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material". Crick has worked intently on issues of consciousness, until his recent death. (A sample paper authored by Crick and Koch. Listen to an MP3 if you'd like...).
  • 1963- Sir John Carew Eccles, "for their discoveries concerning the ionic mechanisms involved in excitation and inhibition in the peripheral and central portions of the nerve cell membrane". Eccles proposed a theory of mind-brain dualism and how the mind's will might act to influence the firing of neurons. (An essay examining some of these themes).
  • 1972- Gerald M. Edelman, "for their discoveries concerning the chemical structure of antibodies". Edelman has written a series of books on consciousness and the mind/brain problem and currently heads the Neuroscience Institute in La Jolla, CA. (An interview with Edelman, and another similar interview. Listen to an MP3 if you'd like...).

    Introductory Readings for discussion on September 25.

  • Kandel, Schwartz, Jessell, Chapters 28, 29.
  • Livingstone, M and Hubel, DH (1988) Segregation of Form, Color, Movement and Depth: Anatomy, Physiology and Perception. Science 240: 740-749.
  • Roe, AW and Ts'o, DY (1998) The functional architecture of area V2 in the macaque monkey: Physiology, topography and connectivity, Cerebral Cortex, Kass, J. and Rockland, K. (eds), Plenum Press (1998).

    Original Literature Readings for discussion on September 27.

  • Lennie, P. (2000). Color vision: Putting it together. Current Biology, 10, R589-R591.
  • Reid, RC and Shapley, R (2002) Space and Time Maps of Cone Photoreceptor Signals in Macaque Lateral Geniculate Nucleus. J. Neurosci. 22(14):6158-6175.
  • Mullen, KT and Kingdom, F (2002) Differential distribution of red-green and blue-yellow cone opponency across the visual field. Vis. Neurosci. 19: 1-10.
  • Newsome, WT, and Pare, EB (1988) A selective impairment of motion perception following lesions of the middle temporal visual area (MT). J. Neurosci. 8:2201-2211.

    Original Literature Readings for discussion on September 29.

  • Poggio, GF, and Fischer, B (1977) Binocular interaction and depth sensitivity in striate and prestriate cortex of behaving rhesus monkey. J. Neurosci. 40:1392-1405.
  • Tanaka, K (2003) Columns for complex visual object features in the inferotemporal cortex: Clustering of cells with similar but slightly different stimulus selectives. Cerebral Cortex 13:90-99.
  • Newsome WT, Britten, KH, and Movshon, JA (1989) Neuronal correlates with a perceptual decision. Nature 341:52-54.
  • Movshon, JA, Adelson, EH, Gizzi, MS and Newsome, WT. (1985) The analysis of moving visual patterns, in Pattern Recognition Mechanisms, ed. C. Chagas, R. Gattass, C.Gross (Pontificiae Academiae Scientiarum Scripta Varia 54, 117-151). Rome: Vatican Press. (Reprinted in Experimental Brain Research, Supplementum 11, 117-151, 1986).

     

    Additional Background Readings

  • Hubel, DH and Livingstone, MS (1987) Segregation of form, color, and stereopsis in primate area 18. J. Neurosci. 7: 3378-3415.
  • Nichols, MJ, and Newsome, WT (1999) The neurobiology of cognition. Nature 402:C35-C38.
  • Tanaka, K (1997) Mechanisms of visual object recognition: monkey and human studies. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 7:523-529.

     

    Tips for effective paper presentations

    BACK