Final Writing Assignment

Answer one of the following questions (one-page typewritten response, double-spaced, due Tuesday 06/08/10).

• Specificity in neural computation and representation often go hand in hand with a certain degree of information loss. Discuss why this needs to be the case and give examples from three different sensory modalities (among vision, audition, olfaction, and somatosensation).
• Our understanding of what neurons encode is often limited by what kind of sensory stimuli we probe the system with. Give examples from three different sensory modalities (among vision, audition, olfaction, and somatosensation).
• Describe the distinct topography of neural representation in visual, auditory, and rodent barrel cortex. Discuss how these distinct representations may naturally arise for each sensory modality and what functions they may facilitate in their respective sensory systems.
• Compare and contrast anatomical and functional organization of neural processing in visual and auditory systems.
• Neural processing in sensory systems is often thought of as feedforward and linear: increasingly complex and sophisticated from the sensory periphery to "higher" levels of processing. Give three distinct examples from the course that go against this default view.

Extra credit (one paragraph, due Tuesday 06/08/10, up to 20% bonus).

• Describe two ways in which neural coding in the olfactory system is different from the other sensory modalities.

Last modified: Sat Jun 5 11:05:39 BST 2010