PSY 305 Reading List – Lectures 1 & 4: Techniques for studying the
phenomenon of seeing.
The aim of this pair of lecture is to present a theoretical overview of historical and
current perspectives of the functional architecture of the visual system. Discussion
will be restricted to motion perception as there is a range of converging evidence
which indicates a specific cortical area in both monkeys and man which appears to
underpin motion perception. The theoretical arguments and techniques used though
can be (and are) also applied to other aspects of perception and perception in general.
The lectures will discuss 5 key research papers. These have been chosen as
they are important pieces of experimental research that have been very influential in
guiding our understanding of the visual system. The papers also reflect a range of
experimental techniques. You should consider them both as important in their own
right in terms of the experimental data they provide, but also as a facilitation for the
wider exercise of understanding the type of information that can be gleaned by the
techniques available, and what inferences and conclusions are drawn from them.
Where possible I would encourage you to read the actual experimental papers
(all references are given), but in some cases because of the very dense nature of the
papers I have produced a condensed summary of the literature in supplementary
handouts. These handouts summarise the main methodology, data and conclusion
from the work. In these cases you don’t need to read the original papers.
In lecture 1 the three papers are
Britten, K. H., Shalden, M. N., Newsome, W. T., & Movshon, J. A. (1992). The
analysis of visual motion: A comparison of neuronal and psychophysical
performance. Journal of Neuroscience, 12, 4745 - 4765.
Newsome, W. T., & Pare, E. B. (1988). A selective impairment of motion perception
following lesions of the middle temporal area (MT). Journal of Neuroscience,
8, 2201 - 2211.
Salzman, C. D., Murasugi, C. M., Britten, K. H., & Newsome, W. T. (1992).
Microstimulation in visual area MT: Effects on direction discrimination
performance. Journal of Neuroscience, 12, 2331 - 2355.
All of which are condensed as handouts.
In lecture 2 we will cover some PET and fMRI data. Suggested references are:
Braddick, O., O'Brien, J., Wattam-Bell, J., Atkinson, J., Hartley, T., & Turner, R.
(2001). Brain areas sensitive to coherent visual motion. Perception, 30, 61 72.
Zeki, S. M., Watson, J. D. G., Lueck, C. J., Friston, K., Kennard, C., & Frackowiak,
R. S. J. (1991). A direct demonstration of functional specialization in human
visual cortex. Journal of Neuroscience, 11, 641 - 649.
Recommended textbook reading for this pair of lectures is
Farah, M. J. (2000). The Cognitive Neuroscience of Vision. Oxford, UK: Blackwells
Publishers Ltd. (Chapter 2)
Zeki, S. M. (1993). A vision of the brain. (Chapters 12 – 17, & 21).
And an additional article for those of you who want to take some of the theoretical
ideas a little further is:
Tootell, R. B. H., Dale, A. M., Sereno, M. I., & Malach, R. (1996). New images from
human visual cortex. Trends in Neuroscience, 19, 481 - 489.