VS298: Unsolved Problems in Vision: Difference between revisions

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| Wed. Oct. 1, 4:15 p.m., 489 Minor Hall
| Wed. Oct. 1, 4:15 p.m., 489 Minor Hall
| <br />'''Feldman lecture: The neural binding problem(s) and related mysteries''' [http://redwood.berkeley.edu/wiki/VS298:_Unsolved_Problems_in_Vision video]
| <br />'''Feldman lecture: The neural binding problem(s) and related mysteries''' [https://archive.org/details/uc_berkeley_vs298_2014_10_01_Jerry_Feldman video]
As with many other “problems” in vision and cognitive science, “the binding problem” has been used to label a wide range of tasks of radically different behavioral and computational structure. These include a “hard” version that is currently intractable, a feature-binding variant that is productive routine science and a variable-binding case that is unsolved, but should be solvable. The talk will cover all these and some related problems that seem intractably hard as well as some that are unsolved, but are being approached with current and planned experiments.
As with many other “problems” in vision and cognitive science, “the binding problem” has been used to label a wide range of tasks of radically different behavioral and computational structure. These include a “hard” version that is currently intractable, a feature-binding variant that is productive routine science and a variable-binding case that is unsolved, but should be solvable. The talk will cover all these and some related problems that seem intractably hard as well as some that are unsolved, but are being approached with current and planned experiments.
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Revision as of 03:52, 2 October 2014

One of the goals of vision science is to understand the nature of perception and its neural substrates. There are now many well established techniques and paradigms in both psychophysics and neuroscience to address problems in vision. However, knowing how to frame these questions for investigation is not necessarily obvious. Nervous systems present us with stunning complexity, and the purpose of perception itself is deeply mysterious. The goal of this seminar course is to step back and ask, what are the important problems that remain unsolved in vision research, and how should these be approached empirically? The course will consist of alternating weeks of discussion and guest lectures by vision scientists who will frame their views of the core unsolved problems. Interdisciplinary groups of students will devise a practical research plan to address an unsolved problem of their choice.

Instructors: Stan Klein, Jerry Feldman, Bruno Olshausen, and Karl Zipser
GSI: Dan Coates

Enrollment information:

VS 298 (section 2), 2 units
CCN: 66478

Meeting time and place: Tuesday 6-8, 560 Evans (Redwood Center conference room)

Email list:

  • Seminar mailing list vs298_unsolved_problems_in_vision@lists.berkeley.edu subscribe
  • Lecture series mailing list subscribe

Weekly schedule:

Date Topic/Reading
Sept. 2 Introduction
Sept. 9 Methodology in vision science (Stan Klein)
  • Double-judgment psychophysics: problems and solutions pdf Read pp 1560-1567 This will give a glimpse into some of the issues involved with the relationship between detecting and identifying an object. The second part of the paper is more complicated.
  • Measuring, estimating, and understanding the psychometric function: A commentary pdf I (Stan Klein) was an editor of a special issue of "Perception & Psychophyics" and I wrote the summary article not only commenting on a number of the articles, but also trying to clarify some misunderstood aspects in the field.
  • Psychophysics : A Practical Introduction site This is the text by Kingdom and Prins that I've used when teaching psychophysics methods. I suggest reading Chapters 2 & 3. Some of the dichotomies in Chapter 2 are directly relevant to a number of unsolved problems in vision. Some might even be insoluble.

Marcus background discussion

Sept. 16 Evening seminar, focus on student projects: form groups and discuss proposal topics grant_format
Sept. 19

(Friday) 11:00 a.m., 5101 Tolman


Gary Marcus lecture: Computational diversity and the mesoscale organization of the neocortex video


The human neocortex participates in a wide range of tasks, yet superficially appears to adhere to a relatively uniform six-layered architecture throughout its extent. For that reason, much research has been devoted to characterizing a single "canonical" cortical computation, repeated massively throughout the cortex, with differences between areas presumed to arise from their inputs and outputs rather than from “intrinsic” properties. There is as yet no consensus, however, about what such a canonical computation might be, little evidence that uniform systems can capture abstract and symbolic computation (e.g., language) and little contact between proposals for a single canonical circuit and complexities such as differential gene expression across cortex, or the diversity of neurons and synapse types. Here, we evaluate and synthesize diverse evidence for a different way of thinking about neocortical architecture, which we believe to be more compatible with evolutionary and developmental biology, as well as with the inherent diversity of cortical functions. In this conception, the cortex is composed of an array of reconfigurable computational blocks, each capable of performing a variety of distinct operations, and possibly evolved through duplication and divergence. The computation performed by each block depends on its internal configuration. Area-specific specialization arises as a function of differing configurations of the local logic blocks, area-specific long-range axonal projection patterns and area-specific properties of the input. This view provides a possible framework for integrating detailed knowledge of cortical microcircuitry with computational characterizations. With Adam Marblestone, MIT and Tom Dean, Google

Sept. 23 Marcus discussion (postponed)

Feldman background discussion

  • NEW MATERIALs:
  • Feldman, J. (2008). From molecule to metaphor: A neural theory of language. MIT press. (look at Chapters 1, 2, 9, and 26 before class) pdf
  • OLD MATERIALS:
  • Feldman, J. (2013). The neural binding problem (s). Cognitive neurodynamics, 7(1), 1-11. pdf
  • Feldman, J. & Narayanan, S. (2014). Affordances, Actionability, and Simulation. Affordances Workshop, Robotics Science and Systems 2014, Berkeley, CA pdf
  • Feldman, J. (2010). Ecological expected utility and the mythical neural code. Cognitive neurodynamics, 4(1), 25-35. pdf
Sept. 30 Discuss student projects
Wed. Oct. 1, 4:15 p.m., 489 Minor Hall
Feldman lecture: The neural binding problem(s) and related mysteries video

As with many other “problems” in vision and cognitive science, “the binding problem” has been used to label a wide range of tasks of radically different behavioral and computational structure. These include a “hard” version that is currently intractable, a feature-binding variant that is productive routine science and a variable-binding case that is unsolved, but should be solvable. The talk will cover all these and some related problems that seem intractably hard as well as some that are unsolved, but are being approached with current and planned experiments.

Oct. 7 Feldman discussion

Malik background discussion

  • Malik papers...
Oct. 14
Jitendra Malik lecture


Oct. 21 Malik discussion

Nakayama and Shimojo background discussion

  • Nakayama, K. (1999). Mid-level vision. In R. A. Wilson & F. C. Keil (Eds.), The MIT encylopedia of the cognitive sciences Cambridge: MIT Press pdf
  • Nakayama, K. (2010) "Vision going social." The science of social vision. Adams, R.B. Jr., Ambady, N., Nakayama, K. & Shimojo, S. (Eds) Oxford University Press pdf
  • Nakayama, K. and Martini, P. (2011) Situating Visual Search. Vision Research, 51, 1526-1537. pdf

(All Nakayama pubs available here)

  • Shimojo, S. (2014). Postdiction: its implications on visual awareness, hindsight, and sense of agency. Frontiers in psychology, 5. pdf
Oct. 28
Ken Nakayama lecture: The scientist’s choice: solving, explaining, discovering . . . .


Nov. 3 (Monday)

12:00 p.m. 489 Minor Hall


Shinsuke Shimojo lecture: Postdiction: its implications on visual awareness, hindsight, and sense of agency


Nov. 4 Nakayama and Shimojo discussion

Wandell background discussion

  • To appear: Computational modeling of responses in human visual cortex. BA Wandell, J Winawer, KN Kay.

In Brain Mapping: An Encyclopedic Reference (Edited by Thompson and Friston.) pdf

(Friday) Nov. 14
Brian Wandell lecture


Nov. 18 Wandell discussion

Gallant background discussion

  • Gallant papers...
Nov. 25
Jack Gallant lecture


Evening seminar: Gallant Discussion
Koch background discussion

  • Tononi, G., & Koch, C. (2014). Consciousness: Here, There but Not Everywhere. arXiv preprint arXiv:1405.7089. pdf
  • Scientific American article
  • Scientific American article
Dec. 2, 4-6 p.m., 125 Li Ka Shing
Christof Koch lecture: Unsolved Problems in Vision: Consciousness.

Evening seminar: Koch Discussion


Additional Materials

  • recent special issue of CurrOpinNeuro journal
  • Olshausen BA Olshausen (2013) Perception as an Inference Problem. pdf
  • Olshausen BA (2012) 20 years of learning about vision: Questions answered, questions unanswered, and questions not yet asked. In: 20 Years of Computational Neuroscience (Symposium of the CNS 2010 annual meeting) pdf
  • Kitaoka, A (2014) Color-dependent motion illusions in stationary images and their phenomenal dimorphism. Perception advance online publication pdf
  • O'Regan, J. K., & Noë, A. (2001). A sensorimotor account of vision and visual consciousness. Behavioral and brain sciences, 24(05), 939-973.pdf
  • Bruno Olshausen lecture (1 July 2014) 20 Years of Learning About Vision: Questions Answered, Questions Unanswered, and Questions Not Yet Asked video