Instructor: Ken Britten, Section of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, College of Biological Sciences
Description: This will be a seminar covering central visual mechanisms, with an emphasis on how visual scientists study perception and the brain. We will start with perceptual psychology, then move to neuroscience, emphasizing the cool and surprising things the brain has to do to allow us to see effortlessly. The main goal is to get students interested in the “how” of visual science, not just the facts. I will attempt to get the students interested in and involved in the excitement of the discovery process as it applies to the study of vision. I will want a successful student to demonstrate understanding of how difficult it is to see in the first place (which most people do not appreciate), as well as to understand how a hypothesis is formed and tested with an experiment.
Format: The seminar will meet once each week for 2 hours. The instructor will, in some sessions, prepare some didactic lecture material, but the bulk of the time will be spent in discussion of assigned readings and students answers to study questions. One carefully chosen paper from the original literature will be assigned per week. These will be augmented by appropriate background reading: introductory chapters or reviews at the Scientific American level. Grading: Students will be required to read the material and be actively involved in discussion. I will assign study questions for each week’s assignment, and ask students to come with short (100-word) written answers to the study questions. These will be graded on a pass/fail basis. Students grades will be based 50% on their weekly answers and 50% on participation in discussion.
About the Instructor: Professor Britten is a member of the Section of Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior with a research lab in the Center for Neuroscience. He has been on the faculty since 1993, and his lab studies cortical mechanisms of visual motion analysis.