BCS 504: Sensory Systems

 

Meeting Time:

 

Wednesday, Friday 10:00 - 11:30 AM

Kresge Room, Meliora Hall

 

Description:

 

This course provides a survey of sensory systems, focusing primarily on vision, but also covering the auditory and vestibular systems. The course provides a multi-disciplinary perspective on sensory coding, bringing together results from psychophysics, neuroscience and computational modeling.

 

Requirements:

 

Students will be expected to read assigned readings prior to each class and participate in class discussion. Two take-home exams will be given during the term, one on Oct. 17 and the other at the end of the term on Dec. 15.

 

Course outline

 

9/5                   Organizational meeting

           

9/10 - 9/12       Physiological Optics (D. Williams)

 

9/17 - 9/19       Retina and LGN (D. Calkins)

Reading for 9/17: David J. Calkins, Seeing with S cones

Reading for 9/19: Stewart H.C. Hendry and David J. Calkins, Neuronal chemistry and functional organization in the primate visual system
Slides for 9/19: 1, 2, 3, 4

 

9/24                 Analytical Methods II (D. Knill)

                        Signal detection theory

                        Probabilistic modeling

Reading for 9/24: Cornsweet, T. Visual Perception, Chapters 2 and 4
McNicol, D. A Primer of Signal Detection, Chapters 1-3, pp. 1-24, 40-75

9/26                 Analytical Methods I (D. Knill)

                        Linear systems

Readings for 9/26: Wandell, B. A. Foundations of Vision Chapter 2 and Appendix A

 

10/1 - 10/3       Spatial Vision (W. Makous)

 

10/8 - 10/10     Cortical coding (W. Merigan)

Reading for 10/8: Kandel, Scwartz and Jessel, Chapters 27 and 28
Reading for 10/10: Bakin, et al.

 

10/15               Cortical coding and image statistics (D. Knill)

 

10/17               Stereopsis  (D. Knill)

 

10/17               Mid-term exam. Due: 10/21

 

10/22 - 10/24   Motion perception (T. Pasternak)

Lecture Notes for 10/22 - 10/24 - There are Three Versions of this file:
Click here for a zipped copy of the entire presentation with QuickTime movies. (24.4 MB)
Click here for a binhex file of the entire presentation with QuickTime movies. (21.7 MB)
Click here to download the PowerPoint presentation without the Quicktime movies. (4.3 MB)

 

10/29               Models of motion perception (D. Knill)

Reading for 10/29: Adelson and Bergan, Simoncelli and Hegger

 

10/31               Models of stereopsis (D. Knill)

Reading for 10/31: Ohzawa, DeAngelis and Freeman, Qian

 

11/5 - 11/7       Color vision (D. Knill)

Lecture Notes for 11/5 - 11/7 - This is a very large PowerPoint presentation broken into 5 smaller PowerPoint files:
Color and Vision Part 1 - 5.9MB
Color and Vision Part 2 - 7.8MB
Color and Vision Part 3 - 10.5MB
Color and Vision Part 4 - 7.7MB
Color and Vision Part 5 - 7.0MB

 

11/12 - 11/14   Neuroscience meeting

 

11/19 - 11/21   Oculomotor System (E. Freedman)

 

11/26 - 11/28   Thanksgiving

 

12/3 - 12/5       Audition (Jim Ison)

 

12/10  - 12/12  Vestibular system (Scott Seidman)

 

12/15               Final exam. Due: 12/19