Current Issues
Sensory substitution: Visual cortex in the blind
(Current Directions 6, 2005)
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Current Issues
Merging neuroplasticity and neuroprostheses
(Nature reviews Neuroscience 6, 2005)
Retina
Cortex
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Optic nerve
“In two common causes of blindness, retinitis pigmentosa and age-related
macular degeneration (ARMD), there is a relatively selective degeneration
of the photoreceptor layer of the retina. On the other hand, ganglion cells
within the inner retinal layers survive in large numbers and respond to
electrical simulation even in advanced stages of the diseases.”
Neuroesthetics
Some orbitofrontal olfactory neurons don’t respond to intensity
But do respond to pleasantness
firing
time
pleasant
unpleasant
Source: Dana Small, “There is no
accounting for flavor without having
first experienced it”, 1/06
Neuroesthetics
Midbrain tegmentum dopamine neurons, response to
Withheld reward:
expected reward
real reward
Source; “Comparing Pepsi to Picasso:
Neural valuation responses to aesthetic
And consummatory preference”, 1/06