9.13 | Spring 2019 | Undergraduate

The Human Brain

Readings

WEEK ONE

Introduction

Kanwisher, N. “Functional specificity in the human brain: A window into the functional architecture of the mind.” PNAS 107, no. 25 (2010): 11163–70. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1005062107

WEEK TWO

Note: Anyone who has not taken 9.00 or 9.01 or equivalent should review background on visual pathways from retina to cortex (see the syllabus page for prerequisite information). This includes retina, photoreceptor, rods and cones, fovea, retinal ganglion cells, receptive field, LGN (lateral geniculate nucleus), retinotopy (we’ll go over this in class), orientation selectivity, and ocular dominance columns.

Neuroanatomy

Buy at MIT Press Marr, D. “General Introduction” and “Chapter 1: The Philosophy and Approach” in Vision: A Computational Investigation in the Human Representation and Processing of Visual Information. W.H. Freeman and Company, 1982. ISBN: 0716715678.

Tootell, R.B.H., J.B. Reppas, et al. “Visual Motion Aftereffect in Human Cortical Area MT Revealed by Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging.” Nature 375 (1995): 139–41.  DOI: 10.1038/375139a0

WEEK THREE

Cognitive Neuroscience Methods

Thorpe, S., D. Fize, and C. Marlot. “Speed of Processing in the Human Visual System.” Nature 381, no. 6582 (1996): 520–22. DOI: 10.1038/381520a0

Downing, P.E., Y. Jiang, et al. “A Cortical Area Selective for Visual Processing of the Human Body.” Science 293 (2001): 2470–73. DOI: 0.1126/science.1063414

WEEK FOUR

Visual Pathways and Multiple Voxel Pattern Analysis (MVPA)

Haxby, J.V., M.I. Gobbini, et al. “Distributed and Overlapping Representations of Faces and Objects in Ventral Temporal Cortex.” Science 293 (2001): 2425–30. DOI: 10.1126/science.1063736

Pitcher, D., L. Charles, et al. “Triple Dissociation of Faces, Bodies, and Objects in Extrastriate Cortex.” Current Bio. 19 (2009): 319–24. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2009.01.007

WEEK FIVE

Bryan, P.B., J.B. Julian, and R.A. Epstein. “Rectilinear Edge Selectivity Is Insufficient to Explain the Category Selectivity of the Parahippocampal Place Area.” Front. Hum. Neurosci. 10, no. 137 (2016): 1–12. DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2016.00137

Robin, J., M.X. Lowe, et al. “Selective Scene Perception Deficits in a Case of Topographical Disorientation.” Cortex 92 (2017): 70–80. DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2017.03.014

Optional Reading

This optional background reading covers much of the material for this week:

Epstein, R.A., E.Z. Patai, et al. “The Cognitive Map in Humans: Spatial Navigation and Beyond.” Nature Neuroscience 20 (2017): 1504–13. DOI: 10.1038/nn.4656

WEEK SIX

Development, Nature & Nurture

Sugita, Y. “Face Perception in Monkeys Reared with No Exposure to Faces.” PNAS 105, no. 1 (2008): 394–98. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0706079105

Ullman, S., D. Harari, and N. Dorfman. “From Simple Innate Biases to Complex Visual Concepts.” PNAS 109, no. 44 (2012): 18215–20. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1207690109

WEEK SEVEN

No Readings

WEEK EIGHT

Number, Hearing, and Speech

Knops, A., B. Thirion, et al. “Recruitment of an Area Involved in Eye Movements During Mental Arithmetic.” Science 324, no. 5934 (2009): 1583–85. DOI: 10.1126/science.1171599

Tang, C., S. Hamilton, and E.F. Chang. “Intonational Speech Prosody Encoding in the Human Auditory Cortex.” Science 357, no. 6353 (2017): 797–801. DOI: 10.1126/science.aam8577

Fisher, J., J.G. Mikhael, et al. “Functional Neuroanatomy of Intuitive Physical Inference.” PNAS 113, no. 34 (2016): E5072–E5081. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1610344113

WEEK NINE

Music and Language

Lagrois, M., and I. Peretz. “The Co-occurrence of Pitch and Rhythm Disorders in Congenital Amusia.” Cortex 113 (2019): 229–38. DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2018.11.036

Wurm, M.F., and A. Caramazza. “Distinct Roles of Temporal and Frontoparietal Cortex in Representing Actions across Vision and Language.” Nature Communications 10, no. 289 (2019): 1-10. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-08084-y

WEEK TEN

No Readings

WEEK ELEVEN

No Readings

WEEK TWELVE

Theory of Mind and Brain Networks

Ullman, T.D., E. Spelke, et al. “Mind Games: Game Engines as an Architecture for Intuitive Physics.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 21, no. 9 (2017): 649–65. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2017.05.012 

Kubrich, J.R., K.J. Holyoak, et al. “Intuitive Physics: Current Research and Controversies.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 21, no. 10 (2017): 749–59. 10.1016/j.tics.2017.06.002

WEEK THIRTEEN

No Readings

WEEK FOURTEEN

No Readings

Course Info

As Taught In
Spring 2019
Learning Resource Types
Lecture Videos
Written Assignments
Lecture Notes
Instructor Insights