TOPICS

Visual System Anatomy & Physiology

Functional Specialization in the Lower Visual System

Functional Specialization in the Higher Visual System

Cerebral Achromatopsia (cortical color-blindness)

Cerebral Akinetopsia (‘motion blindness’)

Cortical Plasticity in the Visual System

Cortical Plasticity

Cortical Reorganization in the Adult Human Visual System

Filling-In & Hallucinations

Face Recognition & Prosopagnosia

Acquired Prosopagnosia

Selective Sparing of Face Recognition

Developmental Prosopagnosia

Multiple Visual-Systems & the Perception-Action Hypothesis

Perception-Action Dissociations I

Perception-Action Dissociations II

AH: Implications for the Perception-Action Hypotheses

Frames of Reference

The Reference-Frame Concept

AH: Reference Frames in the Visual System

Perceiving and Representing Orientation

Animal, Child, and Patient Studies

Representing Orientation

Evidence from Normal Adults

Vision and Consciousness

Theoretical Issues & Anton’s Syndrome

Blindsight

AH: Visual Updating & Visual Awareness

GRADING

Grades will be determined as follows:

15 Article Précis 2% each 30%

3 Exams 15% each 45%

2 Brief Papers 12.5% each 25%

19 artice précis are assigned; you need only do 15 of these

The third exam is NOT a cumulative final; it will cover only the material presented since the first exam.

READINGS & ASSIGNMENTS DUE DATES

Date	Readings	Assignment
Jan 29	Bear et al. (2001)
31	Bear et al. (2001)
Feb 5	Livingstone & Hubel (1988)	Précis: Livingstone & Hubel (1988)
7	Damasio et al. (1980) Sacks (1995)	Précis: Damasio et al. (1980)
12	Heywood & Zihl (1999) Zihl et al. (1983)	Précis: Zihl et al. (1983)
14	Gilbert & Darian-Smith (1995)	Précis: Gilbert & Darian-Smith (1995)
19	Dilks et al. (2007)	Précis: Dilks et al. (2007)
21	Ramachandran & Blakeslee (1998) Pettet & Gilbert (1992) Ramachandran & Gregory (1991) Schultz & Melzack (1991)	Précis: Schultz & Melzack (1991)
26		EXAM 1
28	Ellis & Florence (1990) Farah et al. (1995)	Précis: Farah et al. (1995)
Mar 4	Moscovitch et al. (1997)	Précis: Moscovitch et al. (1997)
6	Davis (2006) Duchaine (2000) Duchaine et al. (2006)	PAPER 1: Duchaine et al. (2006)
11	Goodale & Milner (2004) Goodale et al. (1991)	Précis: Goodale et al. (1991)
13	Goodale & Milner (2004) Milner et al. (1999)	Précis: Milner et al. (1999)
25	Aglioti et al. (1995) Franz & Gegenfurtner (2000)	Précis: Aglioti et al. (1995)
27	McCloskey (2004)	Précis: McCloskey (2004)
Apr 1		EXAM 2
3	McCloskey (2008) Ch. 12	Précis: McCloskey (2008) Ch. 12
8	McCloskey (2008) Ch. 13	Précis: McCloskey (2008) Ch. 13
10	McCloskey et al. (2006)	Précis: McCloskey et al. (2006)
15	Gregory & McCloskey (2008)	Précis: Gregory & McCloskey (2008)
17	Sutherland (1957) Rudel & Teuber (1963) Turnbull & McCarthy (1996)	PAPER 2: Rudel & Teuber (1963)
22	Farah (1990) Forde & Wallesch (2003)	Précis: Farah (1990)
24	Weiskrantz (1986) Ch. 2-3, 19	Précis: Weiskrantz (1986) Ch. 19
29	McCloskey (2008) Ch. 18	Précis: McCloskey (2008) Ch. 18
May 1		EXAM 3

COURSE POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

Class Attendance

The material presented in class is crucial, and much of it is not duplicated in the readings. Accordingly, it is important that you attend class regularly.

Written Assignments

You are expected to turn in the written assignments at the class meeting on the due date. If the due date for an assignment poses a serious problem for you, we can usually be flexible, if you discuss the matter with a TA before the day the assignment is due. Except in extraordinary circumstances (such as emergency hospitalization), assignments turned in late -- that is, after the class meeting on the due date, or after the time arranged in advance with the TA -- will be marked down substantially.

In working on written assignments you are allowed, and encouraged, to discuss the material with other members of the class. However, you must do the written work that is to be turned in on your own. Assignments should be prepared on a word processor; please do not turn in handwritten papers.

Exams

You are expected to take the exams at the scheduled times, but we can usually be flexible if this presents a serious problem. If you need to take an exam at other than the scheduled time, you must discuss the matter with the TA prior to the day of the exam. We will be much less understanding if you come to us after the exam to explain why you missed it (unless the circumstances are extraordinary).

Reading Assignments

All reading assignments are listed at the end of this syllabus. Most are research articles or book chapters. These are available on electronic reserve. In addition to the articles & book chapters, we will be reading an entire book:

Goodale, M., & Milner, D. (2004). Sight unseen: An exploration of conscious and unconscious vision. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Please order this book from amazon.com or a similar source.

Getting Help

The TAs and I are here to help you; we want everyone to get as much out of the course as possible. We are available at office hours, and (usually) before and after class. If none of these times are convenient for you, we will be happy to arrange another time. If you are having any sort of problem, please get in touch with us. If something is not clear to you from a class or reading, please ask questions in class, or come ask one of us about it outside of class. If you are having more serious difficulty please come talk to me.

If you want to learn more about any of the topics considered in the class, we can often refer you to appropriate readings or other sources.

Finally, please note that the Office of Academic Advising (516-8216) offers several academic support services to students, including tutoring and study skills training.

Readings

Visual System Anatomy & Physiology

Bear, M. F., Connors, B. W., & Paradiso, M. A. (2001). Neuroscience: Exploring the brain. Baltimore, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Chapter 10: The central visual system (pp. 313-348).

Functional Specialization in the Lower Visual System

Livingstone, M. S. & Hubel, D. H. (1988). Segregation of form, color, movement, and depth: Anatomy, physiology, and perception. Science, 240, 740-749.

Functional Specialization in the Higher Visual System

Cerebral Achromatopsia

Damasio, A. R., Yamada, T., Damasio, H., Corbett, J., & McKee, J. (1980). Central achromatopsia: Behavioral, anatomic, and physiologic aspects. Neurology, 30, 1064-1071.

Sacks, O. (1995). An anthropologist on Mars: Seven paradoxical tales. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Chapter 1.

Cerebral Akinetopsia

Zihl, J., Von Cramon, D., & Mai, N. (1983). Selective disturbance of movement vision after bilateral brain damage. Brain, 106, 313-340.

Heywood, C. A. & Zihl, J. (1999). Motion blindness. In G.W.Humphreys (Ed.), Case studies in the neuropsychology of vision (pp. 1-16). East Sussex, UK: Psychology Press.

Plasticity in the Cortical Visual System

Cortical Plasticity

Gilbert, C. D. & Darian-Smith, G. A. W. (1995). The dynamic nature of adult visual cortex. In J.L.McGaugh, N. H. Weinberger, & G. Lynch (Eds.), Brain and memory: Modulation and mediation of neuroplasticity (pp. 193-205). London: Oxford University Press.

Cortical Reorganization in the Adult Human Visual System

Dilks, D. D., Serences, J. T., Rosenau, B. J., Yantis, S., & McCloskey, M. (2007). Human cortical reorganization and consequent visual distortion. Journal of Neuroscience, 27, 9585-9594.

Filling-In & Hallucinations

Ramachandran, V. S., & Blakeslee, S. (1998). Phantoms in the brain. New York: William Morrow. Chapter 5: The Secret Life of James Thurber. (pp. 85-112).

Pettet, M. W. & Gilbert, C. D. (1992). Dynamic changes in receptive-field size in cat primary visual cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA, 89, 8366-8370.

Ramachandran, V. S. & Gregory, R. L. (1991). Perceptual filling in of artificially induced scotomas in human vision. Nature, 350, 699-702.

Schultz, G. & Melzack, R. (1991). The Charles Bonnet syndrome: 'phantom visual images'. Perception, 20, 809-825.

Face Recognition & Prosopagnosia

Acquired Prosopagnosia

Ellis, H. D. & Florence, M. (1990). Bodamer's (1947) paper on prosopagnosia. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 7, 81-105.

Farah, M. J., Wilson, K. D., Drain, H. M., & Tanaka, J. R. (1995). The inverted face inversion effect in prosopagnosia: Evidence for mandatory, face-specific perceptual mechanisms. Vision Research, 35, 2089-2093.

Selective Sparing of Face Recognition

Moscovitch, M., Winocur, G., & Behrmann, M. (1997). What is special about face recognition? Nineteen experiments on a person with visual object agnosia and dyslexia but normal face recognition. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 9, 555-604.

Developmental Prosopagnosia

Davis, J. (2006). Faceblind. Wired, November 2006, 194-203.

Duchaine, B. C. (2000). Developmental prosopagnosia with normal configural processing. NeuroReport, 11, 79-83.

Duchaine, B. C., Yovel, G., Butterworth, E. J., & Nakayama, K. (2006). Prosopagnosia as an impairment to face-specific mechanisms: Elimination of the alternative hypotheses in a developmental case. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 23, 714-747.

Multiple Visual-Systems & the Perception-Action Hypothesis

Multiple Cortical Visual Systems

Goodale, M., & Milner, D. (2004). Sight unseen: An exploration of conscious and unconscious vision. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Prologue-Chapter 4.

Goodale, M. A., Milner, A. D., Jakobson, L. S., & Carey, D. P. (1991). A neurological dissociation between perceiving objects and grasping them. Nature, 349, 154-156.

Perception-Action Dissociations in Brain-Damaged Patients

Goodale, M., & Milner, D. (2004). Sight unseen: An exploration of conscious and unconscious vision. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Chapter 5-Postscript.

Milner, A. D., Paulignan, Y., Dijkerman, H. C., Michel, F., & Jeannerod, M. (1999). A paradoxical improvement of misreaching in optic ataxia: new evidence for two separate visual systems for visual localization. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, 266, 2225-2229.

Perception-Action Dissociations in Normal Adults

Aglioti, S. J., DeSouza, J. F. X., & Goodale, M. A. (1995). Size-contrast illusions deceive the eye but not the hand. Current Biology, 5, 679-685.

Franz, V. H., Gegenfurtner, K. R., Bülthoff, H. H., & Fahle, M. (2000). Grasping visual illusions: No evidence for a dissociation between perception and action. Psychological Science, 11, 20-25.

AH: Implications for the Perception-Action Hypotheses

McCloskey, M. (2004). Spatial representations and multiple-visual-systems hypotheses: evidence from a developmental deficit in visual location and orientation processing. Cortex, 40, 677-694.

Frames of Reference

The Reference-Frame Concept

McCloskey, M. (2008). Visual reflections: A perceptual deficit and its implications. New York: Oxford University Press. Chapter 12 Spatial Representations and Frames of Reference: Theoretical Foundations (pp. 178-195).

AH: Reference Frames in the Visual System

McCloskey, M. (2008). Visual reflections: A perceptual deficit and its implications. New York: Oxford University Press. Chapter 13 Location Representations and Frames of Reference: Evidence from AH (pp. 196-233).

Perceiving and Representing Orientation

Animal, Child, and Patient Studies

Sutherland, N. S. (1957). Visual discrimination of orientation by octopus. British Journal of Psychology, 48, 55-71.

Rudel, R. G. & Teuber, H.-L. (1963). Discrimination of direction of line in children. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 56, 892-898.

Turnbull, O. H. & McCarthy, R. (1996). Failure to discriminate between mirror-image objects: A case of viewpoint-independent object recognition? Neurocase, 2, 63-72.

Representing Orientation

McCloskey, M., Valtonen, J., & Sherman, J. (2006). Representing orientation: A coordinate-system hypothesis, and evidence from developmental deficits. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 23, 680-713.

Evidence from Normal Adults

Gregory, E., & McCloskey, M. (2008). Representing the orientations of objects: Evidence from adults’ error patterns. Manuscript.

Vision and Consciousness

Theoretical Issues & Anton’s Syndrome

Farah, M. J. (2000). The cognitive neuroscience of vision. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. Chapter 10.

Forde, E. M. E. & Wallesch, C.-W. (2003). 'Mind-blind for blindness': A psychological review of Anton's syndrome. In C.Code, C.-W. Wallesch, Y. Joanette, & A.-R. Lecours (Eds.), Classic cases in neuropsychology Volume II (pp. 199-221). New York: Psychology Press.

Blindsight

Weiskrantz, L. (1986). Blindsight: A case study and implications. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Chapters 2-3, 19 (pp. 20-46, 140-174).

AH: Visual Updating & Visual Awareness

McCloskey, M. (2008). Visual reflections: A perceptual deficit and its implications. New York: Oxford University Press. Chapter 18 Visual Updating & Visual Awareness. (pp. 315-342).

Bear et al. (2001) Figures. These jpeg files contain color images from the reading. They are labeled by page number.
1. 317	2. 318	3. 322
4. 323	5. 330	6. 335
7. 338	8. 341	9. 345
10. 346

Livingstone & Hubel Figures.
1. Figure 1	2. Figure 7

Equiluminance Web Demos

http://visionlab.harvard.edu/Members/Patrick/Demos/index.html

vanishing donut, and slowing spokes

http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/col_equilu/index.html

sphere structure from motion demo

http://webexhibits.org/colorart/anuszkiewicz.html

http://lite.bu.edu/vision/applets/Form/HiddenImage/RandomDotColor.html

http://lite.bu.edu/vision/applets/Color/Isoluminance/Isoluminance.html