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A Walk-Through of the Mammalian Visual System

Difficulty level
Beginner
Speaker
Type
Duration
56:31

From the retina to the superior colliculus, the lateral geniculate nucleus into primary visual cortex and beyond, this lecture gives a tour of the mammalian visual system highlighting the Nobel-prize winning discoveries of Hubel & Wiesel.

Topics covered in this lesson
  • A brief historical overview of vision research
  • Retina, thalamus, visual cortex
  • Cells in the retina: photoreceptors, bipolar cells, and ganglion cells
  • Typical computations in the retina (examples)
  • Receptive fields. Direction selectivity
  • Visualization of neural responses with fluorescent dyes and optogenetics
  • Concluding Q&A (from 44:09).
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