Principles of Perception
Full course description
How does our brain give rise to our inner experience of the world around us? The ease with which we see, hear, feel and smell makes perception seem effortless. However, this ability is astounding when one considers the complexity and diversity of our senses and how the millions of neurons in our brain work together to process the various and constantly changing sensory stimuli.
This course will provide an introduction into basic principles of perception using examples from vision and audition. Students will learn how the visual system converts pixel intensities into visual object perception. Similarly, students will learn how the auditory system converts sound waves into auditory perception of objects. Treatment of both the visual and auditory systems will involve discussions of relevant sensory, subcortical, and cortical structures and provide a basic overview of biophysical, biochemical, and physiological principles underlying perception. In this sense, this course is placed on the intersection between biology (with a focus on neural mechanisms), and psychology (with a focus on visual, auditory, and multisensory perception).
Additionally, in several tasks, the neural mechanisms discussed will also be linked to the mathematics courses and will be used as a basis for mathematical and programming exercises or demonstrations. For example, the topic of psychophysical measures in this task will be linked to the concept of functions and their inverses in calculus. Signal detection foreshadows what students will learn in Probability and Statistics courses. The important concept of a receptive field will be linked to spatial (or temporal) filtering, and is related to matrices and matrix multiplications, as well as to Fourier principles as treated in Calculus.
Building on the understanding of the early sensory processes, students will discuss how constructive brain processes lead to perceptual grouping principles and illusions in both the visual and auditory domain, and ultimately the perception of objects. Students will study how statistical co-occurrence of features during development shapes the neural architecture and function of perception.
The final assessment for this course is a numerical grade between 0,0 and 10,0.
Course objectives
- identify and understand different aspects of auditory and visual perception, such as object recognition, sound perception, Gestalt psychology, and auditory/visual illusions;
- explain physiological principles of auditory and visual perception, such as the structure and function of the ear and eye, image and sound perception, subcortical and cortical auditory and visual pathways, and structural and functional principles of perception;
- recognize and clarify anomalies in auditory and visual perception, such as hearing loss and retinal dysfunctions, and can relate these anomalies to underlying physiological mechanisms and/or brain damage;
- understand, analyse and evaluate basic approaches and research methods central to the study of perception.
- achieve understanding of theories and data covered in the tutorials through discussion in the group, and prepare group assignments
- communicate scientific insights to your peers via a formal presentation