This course surveys the core perceptual and cognitive abilities of the human mind and asks how they are implemented in the brain. Key themes include the representations, development, and degree of functional specificity of these components of mind and brain. The course will take students straight to the cutting edge of the field, empowering them to understand and critically evaluate empirical articles in the current literature.
Prof. Nancy Kanwisher. MIT 9.13 The Human Brain. Spring 2019. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCouseWare, https://ocw.mit.edu/. License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA.
Lectures 3, 14, 17, 19, 22, and 25 were not recorded
Dec-17-2023VIDEO 1 Lecture 1: Introduction
Prof. Kanwisher tells a true story to introduce the course, then covers the why, how, and what of studying the human brain, and gives a course overview.
Dec-17-2023VIDEO 2 Lecture 2: Neuroanatomy
Basic brief neuroanatomy review in preparation for dissection, including an introduction to the cortex, primary regions, and topographic maps.
Dec-17-2023VIDEO 3 Lecture 4: Cognitive Neuroscience Methods I
Introduction to methods in cognitive neuroscience including computation, behavior, fMRI, ERPs & MEG, neuropsychology patients, TMS, and intracranial recordings in humans and nonhuman primates.
Dec-17-2023VIDEO 4 Lecture 5: Cognitive Neuroscience Methods II
Continuation of discussion of methods in cognitive neuroscience including computation, behavior, fMRI, ERPs & MEG, neuropsychology patients, TMS, and intracranial recordings in humans and nonhuman primates.
Dec-17-2023VIDEO 5 Lecture 6: Experimental Design
This session reviews the last two lectures, face recognition, and explores types of experimental methods.
Dec-17-2023VIDEO 6 Lecture 7: Category Selectivity, Controversies, and MVPA
Covers controversies and alternative views of the ventral visual pathway, multiple voxel pattern analysis, and the two visual pathways.
Dec-17-2023VIDEO 7 Lecture 8: Navigation I
The functional organization of scene perception and navigation and the various brain structures that implement them.
Dec-17-2023VIDEO 8 Lecture 9: Navigation II
Scene perception and navigation continued.
Dec-17-2023VIDEO 9 Lecture 10: Development, Nature & Nurture I
This lecture examines how we think the cortex organizes in the brain over infancy and childhood, and the function of genes vs experience.
Dec-17-2023VIDEO 10 Lecture 11: Development, Nature & Nurture II (2018)
Continues the discussion of genes vs experience on cortical organization, and whether the cortex can change in adulthood.
Dec-17-2023VIDEO 11 Lecture 13: Number
Explores the nature of the human representation of number and how it is implemented in the brain.
Dec-17-2023VIDEO 12 Lecture 15: Hearing and Speech
Humans use hearing in species-specific ways, for speech and music. Ongoing research is working out the functional organization of these and other human auditory skills.
Dec-17-2023VIDEO 13 Lecture 16: Music
This session explores the functional organization of music in human beings.
Dec-17-2023VIDEO 14 Lecture 18: Language I
Covers the basic organization of language in the brain and the long-standing question of the relationship between thought and language.
Dec-17-2023VIDEO 15 Lecture 20: Mentalizing and Theory of Mind
The ability of humans to think about what other people are thinking is implemented in brain regions highly specialized for this function alone.
Dec-17-2023VIDEO 16 Lecture 21: Brain Networks
Looks at the major white matter tracts in the human brain, predicting function and correlations between regions.
Dec-17-2023VIDEO 17 Lecture 24: Attention and Awareness
Looks at the differences in the mind and brain between perceptual information we are aware of versus information we are not.