VS298: Subjectivity
Course description
Subjectivity, aka 1st person experience, is an aspect of the famous mind/body problem that is at least partially tractable. The course will explore a wide variety of past and future experiments for learning about the neural and embodied basis for subjectivity. Each week we will have a paper or two to read and possibly a video from world leaders in the field. Then when we meet we will typically have discussions, rather than lectures, on that week’s topic. Two things that will be expected from enrolled students are: 1) A weekly question for the speaker, to be turned in based on the readings. 2) A final proposed experiment to test some unsolved mystery that can be based on science. Discussion on your proposals would be the topic for the last class.
Instructors
- Email: sklein@berkeley.edu
- Office: 420 Minor Hall
- Office hours: immediately following lecture
Jerry Feldman
- Email: jfeldman@cs.berkeley.edu
- Office: 739 Soda Hall
- Office hours: immediately following lecture
Lectures
- Location: 560 Evans (Redwood Center conference room)
- Times: Thursday :2:00 - 4:00
Enrollment information
- Open to both undergraduate and graduate students, subject to background requirements specified below.
- Undergraduates should contact Prof. Klein for enrollment information
- Telebears: {CCN 40715, Section 3, Units 2, Grade Option PNP}
Reading
Week 1: 8/24 Introductory Discussion Stan Klein and Jerry Feldman
Ken Nakayama’s course outline on Consciousness
Chalmers Constructing a Science of Consciousness
- Note that for week 1 there is no need to read the material before coming to class. The first meeting will be a general introduction. These articles will be mentioned.
Week 2: 8/31 Hard Problems and Psychophysical Methodology. Stan Klein
Stephen Fleming Metacognition (will be briefly discussed, no need to read it)
Week 3: 9/7 Binding problems and Vision Mysteries Jerry Feldman
Feldman, The Neural Binding Problem(s) *skip section 3 click here
Feldman, Visual Experience http://arxiv.org/abs/1604.08612
Feldman, Redwood Center talk on Binding Problem https://archive.org/details/Redwood_Center_2012_06_27_Jerome_Feldman
Week 4: 9/14 Attention and Appearance Peter Tse
Chapter in “Handbook of Experimental Phenomenolgy “How Attention Can Alter Appearances” Peter Tse, Eric Reavis, Peter Kohler, Gideon Caplovitz, Thalia Wheatley
Week 5: 9/21 Subjective Contours Ken Nakayama
Lecture by KN at Redwood center hand out red cyan glasses https://archive.org/details/Redwood_Center_1012_01_11_Ken_Nakayama
Week 6: 9/28 Deep Learning and Subjectivity Bruno Olshausen
Sejnowski, T. J. Churchland, P.S. Movshon, J.A. Putting big data to good use in neuroscience, Nature Neuroscience, 17, 1440-1441, 2014 * same as week 1 reading
Neuroscience-Inspired Artificial Intelligence Demis Hassabis, Dharshan Kumaran, Christopher Summerfield, Matthew Botvinick DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2017.06.011
Week 7: 10/5 Color Experience and the Whorf Hypothesis Terry Regier & Rich Ivry
Whorf hypothesis is supported in the right visual field but not the left Gilbert, Regier, Kay, Ivry, 489–494, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0509868103
Whorfian effects on colour memory are not reliable. Wright O, Davies IR, Franklin A. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2015;68(4):745-58.
Week 8: 10/12 Wm. James on Subjectivity (and Phenomenology) Ken Nakayama
William James, Chapter 11 “The Stream of Consciousness” in Psychology: A briefer Course (p 151-176)
Week 9: 10/19 Day for Discussion and preparation for rest of semester
In addition there could be presentation by Michael Cohen to prepare for the following week.
Week 10a: 10/25 Richness of Experience Christof Koch
10/25 Christof Koch *Meeting on Wednesday Are we underestimating the richness of visual experience? Andrew M. Haun, Giulio Tononi, Christof Koch, Naotsugu Tsuchiya; Neuroscience of Consciousness Journal 2017
Week 10b: 10/26 Richness of Experience Michael Cohen
CohenMA, DennettDC, KanwisherN. What is the bandwidth of perceptual experience? Trends Cogn Sci 2016; 20:324-35
Week 11: 11/2 Nikos Logothetis (Tentative: pending confirmation)
Multistable Visual Perception as a Gateway to the Neuronal Correlates of Phenomenal Consciousness: The Scope and limits of Neuroscientific Analysis”. This presentation is still tentative.
Week 12: 11/9 PreFrontal Cortex and Subjectivity Brian Odegaard & Robert Knight
Should a Few Null Findings Falsify Prefrontal Theories of Conscious Perception? Brian Odegaard, Robert T Knight, Hakwan Lau doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/122267
Neural correlates of consciousness: progress and problems - Nature Reviews Neuroscience Christof Koch, Marcello Massimini,,; Melanie Boly,; & Giulio Tononi,.
Week 13: 11/16 Time Subjectivity and Postdiction Shin Shimojo
B. Libet on “time marker” & “backward referral." https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4612-0355-1_9.
A direct application of this to visual processing: Nishida & Johnston (2002). http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096098220200698X.
Shimojo (2014) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3978293/.
Week 14: 11/30 Student presentations on Proposed Experiments
Students discuss their Proposed Experiments
