Introduction to The Human Brain

Jul 7, 2024

Lecture Notes: Introduction to The Human Brain (9.13)

Instructor: Nancy Kanwisher

Overview

  • Course Title: The Human Brain (9.13)
  • Instructor: Nancy Kanwisher
  • Topics Covered: Introduction story, course agenda, why/how/what of studying the brain, course mechanics, and syllabus overview.
  • Key Themes: Brain structure and function, specialized brain regions, recovery after brain damage, and various methods of studying the brain.

Agenda for the Lecture

  1. Brief Story (10 minutes)
  2. The Why, How, and What of studying the brain
  3. Course Mechanics and Details
  4. Syllabus Overview

Brief Story

  • Story Context: Personal story to foreshadow themes in the course
  • Key Themes:
    • Medical incident with a friend (Bob)
    • Revelations about brain function and brain damage
    • The specific problem of navigation ability and its connection to brain structure (para hippocampal Place area)
    • Neuroplasticity and the lack of recovery in specific brain functions

Main Points from the Story

  • Incident: Bob collapsed, confusion about the cause
  • ER Visit: MRI revealed a lime-sized growth in the brain near the para hippocampal Place area
  • Symptoms: Long-standing navigational deficits
  • Medical Expertise: Importance of specialized neurosurgeons
  • Outcome: Successful surgery but no recovery of navigational abilities

Why Study the Human Brain?

  1. Self-Understanding: Knowing the brain helps us understand ourselves and our identity.
  2. Limits of Knowledge: Understanding cognitive limitations and human knowledge.
  3. Advancing AI:
    • Recent progress with deep Nets in visual recognition and other AI applications.
    • Still significant gaps between human and AI capabilities in general understanding.
  4. Intellectual Quest: The brain as the greatest intellectual challenge.

How to Study the Human Brain?

  • Levels of Organization:
    • Molecules, neurons, circuits, brain regions, and networks.
  • Focus on the Course: Linking the brain with the mind, especially from high-level cognitive functions.
  • Key Questions:
    • Specialized machinery for mental functions?
    • Information representation in the brain?
    • Timing and mechanisms of these representations?

Methods in Studying the Brain

  1. Behavioral Observations: Simple yet powerful
  2. Neuropsychology: Studies on brain-damaged patients (like Bob)
  3. Functional Imaging (fMRI)
  4. Neurophysiology and EEG
  5. Connectivity Measures (Diffusion Tractography)

Structure of the Course

  • Lecture Topics: Development, perception, high-level vision, auditory processes, language, theory of mind, cognitive neuroscience methods, and more.
  • Approach: Combination of basic and advanced cognitive neuroscience methods to discuss various mental functions and their brain basis.

Key Lecture Topics Include:

  • Visual & Auditory Perception
  • Navigation
  • Language Understanding
  • Theory of Mind (thinking about others)
  • Brain Networks
  • Attention and Awareness

Practical Details

  • Grading: Midterm (25%), Final (25%), Reading and Writing Assignments, In-class Quizzes
  • Assignments: Reading current research papers, short written responses to readings.
  • Class Schedule: Detailed in the syllabus, listed by lecture topics and key dates.
  • First Quiz: February 20th

Special Elements of the Course

  • Guest Lectures: Including brain-machine interfaces, deep Nets, etc.
  • Practical Sessions: Brain dissection by Ann Graybiel, real-time experiment design, etc.
  • Readings: Focus on recent research articles rather than textbooks.

Learning Goals

  1. Big Questions: Understand theoretical stakes in major field questions.
  2. Methodological Understanding: Different techniques and their contributions.
  3. Cross-Topic Knowledge: Specifically in cognition like face recognition, navigation, number perception, music, and language.
  4. Reading Scientific Papers: Developing skills to read and understand current research.

How to Read a Scientific Paper

  1. Identify Key Questions: What is the research question?
  2. Find Main Findings: What did the study discover?
  3. Interpretation: Why do these findings matter?
  4. Design: What methods were used?
  5. Gobbledygook Caveat: Ignore complex technical details not necessary for basic understanding.
  6. Analysis: Understand how data was analyzed and its significance.