Instructor: Chris Brown

This video describes the physical characteristics of sound and the roles of the three components of the auditory periphery.

1. Introduction: The Visual System
2. Basic layout of the visual system and the retina
3. The laternal geniculate nucleus and the visual cortex
4. The ON and OFF channels
5. The Midget and Parasol systems
6. Adaptation and Color
7. Depth Perception
8. Form Perception
9. Illusions and visual prosthesis
10. The neural control of visually guided eye movements 1
11. The neural control of visually guided eye movements 2
12. Motion perception and pursuit eye movements
13. Review: The visual and oculomotor systems
14. Sound: External, Middle and Inner ears
15. Hair Cells
16. Auditory Nerve;Ppsychophysics of frequency resolution
17. Cochlear nucleus: Tonotopy, Unit types and Cell types
18. Hearing loss; Demo by Sheila Xu, Cochlear implant user
19. Descending systems and reflexes
20. Sound Localization 1: Psychophysics and neural circuits
21. Sound Localization 2: Superior olivary complex and IC
22. Auditory Cortex 1: Physiology and sound localization
23. Auditory Cortex 2: Language; bats and echolocation

This course examines the neural bases of visual and auditory processing for perception and sensorimotor control, focusing on physiological and anatomical studies of the mammalian nervous system as well as behavioral studies of animals and humans. Visual pattern, color and depth perception, auditory responses and speech coding, and spatial localization are studied.

The first thirteen lectures are devoted to the organization of the visual system and eye-movement control. Topics covered during those lectures are: the retina, the lateral geniculate nucleus and the visual cortex, the parallel channels of the visual system, the processing of color, motion, depth and form, and the neural control of visually guided eye movements. The ten lectures that follow the midterm exam focus on audition. At the end of the semester, the last two sessions will provide an overview of the auditory and visual systems.