1. Introduction to the Human Brain
MIT OpenCourseWare・2 minutes read
Nancy Kanwisher teaches a course on the human brain, sharing a personal story about a friend's medical emergency linked to brain abnormalities, leading to insights about brain functions and navigation issues. The course covers various mental functions understood by the brain, with a focus on perception, high-level vision, and audition, aiming to help students appreciate the field's big questions and gain knowledge about cognitive neuroscience methods through reading original research articles.
Insights
- Nancy Kanwisher's class "Human Brain" delves into the importance of studying the human brain through real-life stories, highlighting how brain abnormalities can impact cognitive functions.
- Deep neural networks like AlexNet have revolutionized object recognition tasks, approaching human-level accuracy but still falling short in atypical examples, showcasing the differences between human and AI cognitive capabilities.
- The course emphasizes understanding the brain's organization and its role in mental functions like visual perception, cognition, and language, focusing on cognitive neuroscience methods to explore the brain's specialization and adaptability over time.
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Recent questions
What is the importance of studying the human brain?
Understanding the human brain is crucial to comprehend human identity, evaluate knowledge limits, and advance artificial intelligence. By studying the brain, fundamental aspects of the mind can be revealed, showcasing the brain's specialization in distinct mental processes. Recent advancements in deep learning have revolutionized cognitive science and neuroscience, providing insights into human cognitive functions. The brain's organization mirrors the mind's architecture, emphasizing the significance of studying the brain to gain insights that artificial intelligence systems still lack.
How do deep neural networks like AlexNet perform in object recognition tasks?
Deep neural networks like AlexNet have shown remarkable accuracy in object recognition tasks, approaching human-level performance. These networks have been transformative in the field, providing precise computational theories of human cognitive functions. While deep nets excel in recognizing patterns, they still struggle with object recognition compared to humans, especially in atypical examples. Despite their advancements, deep nets have limitations in understanding complex images and scenarios, showcasing the differences between human and artificial intelligence systems.
What methods are used to understand mental functions and their brain basis?
Cognitive science methods like psychophysics and perceptual illusions are utilized to understand mental functions and their brain basis. These methods help researchers delve into the brain's organization and functions, revealing the roles of various brain regions in mental processes. Functional MRI has significantly contributed to understanding brain organization, showcasing the functions of numerous brain regions compared to limited knowledge in the past. By employing these methods, researchers can gain insights into how the brain gives rise to the mind and comprehend the brain's adaptability and change over time.
What topics are covered in the course on human cognitive neuroscience?
The course on human cognitive neuroscience covers various mental functions understood by the brain, such as visual perception, recognition of faces, places, bodies, scenes, understanding numbers, speech, music, language, and more. Emphasis is placed on perception, high-level vision, and audition due to significant progress in these areas and the involvement of the cortex. The course aims to explore questions related to the brain's specialization in mental functions, system development, homologues in other species, uniqueness to humans, and the brain's adaptability over time. Students will engage with current research papers to enhance their understanding of cognition domains and human cognitive neuroscience methods.
How are assignments and assessments structured in the course?
Assignments and assessments in the course include reading and writing assignments based on research papers to enhance understanding of the material. Grading consists of a midterm and final exam, with additional quizzes to assess understanding and knowledge retention. Students are required to submit assignments on Stellar, with the first written response due on a specific date. Quizzes are conducted using Google Forms to keep students updated on the material, with a longer written assignment involving designing an experiment. The course also includes a brain dissection session and lectures on various topics in human cognitive neuroscience, aiming to provide a comprehensive understanding of the subject matter.