Perception - Chapter 4 Lecture

feature detectors

stimulus-physiology relationship

selective adaptation

firing can cause neurons to eventually become fatigued, so they adapt: the neuron’s firing rate decreases and fires less when that stimulus is immediately presented again

contrast threshold

the minimum intensity difference between two adjacent bars that can just be detected

selective rearing experiments

if an animal is reared in an environment that contains only certain types of stimuli, then neurons can respond to these stimuli will become more prevalent

neural plasticity/experience-dependent plasticity

the idea that the response properties of neurons can be shaped by perceptual experience

retinotopic map

map of the retina on the cortex

cortical magnification

apportioning of a large area on the cortex to the small fovea

how is the cortex organized?

in columns

extrastriate cortex

streams for information about what and where

dorsal stream

streams for information about where and how

higher-level neurons

receptive fields of neurons in the visual system become larger as we move to higher levels

inferotemporal cortex

highest level neurons and largest receptive fields