Perceptual Neuroscience

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

The course will review important findings from research in neurophysiology and cognitive neuroscience on the structure and function of the visual, auditory and somatosensory cortices. Evidence from studies based on single unit recordings, multiple recordings, neuroimaging and behaviour from both human and comparative research will be discussed. The course will also review evidence for how the processing of sensory information in the brain leads to a coherent perception of the multisensory world. Recent psychophysical studies investigating how sensory information is combined will be reviewed along with significant advances in neuro-computational models proposed to explain these effects. The course will examine the phenomenology of perception and evaluate how illusions and synaesthesia provide insight into the conscious basis of perceptual processing in the brain.