The Human Brain
MIT 9.13 The Human Brain, Spring 2019
Instructor: Nancy Kanwisher
Lecture 1: Introduction
Download the PDF of Lecture01 Prof. Kanwisher tells a true story to introduce the course, then covers the why, how, and what of studying the human brain and gives a course overview.
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Lecture 2: Neuroanotomy
Download the PDF Basic brief neuroanatomy review in preparation for dissection, including an introduction to the cortex, primary regions, and topographic maps.
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Lecture 4 : Cognitive Neuroscience Methods I
Download the PDF Introduction to methods in cognitive neuroscience including computation, behavior, fMRI, ERPs & MEG, neuropsychology patients, TMS, and intracranial recordings in humans and nonhuman primates.
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Lecture 5: Cognitive Neuroscience Methods II
Download the PDF Methods in cognitive neuroscience continued.
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Lecture 6: Introduction to the Human Brain
Download the PDF This session reviews the last two lectures, face recognition, and explores types of experimental methods.
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Lecture 7: Category Selectivity, Controversies, and MVPA
Download the PDF Covers controversies and alternative views of the ventral visual pathway, multiple voxel pattern analysis, and the two visual pathways.
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Lecture 8: Navigation I
Download the PDF The functional organization of scene perception and navigation and the various brain structures that implement them.
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Lecture 9: Navigation II
Download the PDF Scene perception and navigation continued.
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Lecture 10: Development, Nature & Nurture I
Download the PDF This lecture examines how we think the cortex organizes in the brain over infancy and childhood, and the function of genes vs experience.
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Lecture 11: Development, Nature & Nurture II (2018)
Download the PDF Continues the discussion of genes vs experience on cortical organization, and whether the cortex can change in adulthood.
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Lecture 13: Number
Download the PDF Explores the nature of the human representation of number and how it is implemented in the brain. NOTE: Lecture 14: New Methods Applied to Number (student breakout groups—video not recorded)
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Lecture 15: Hearing and Speech
Download the PDF Humans use hearing in species-specific ways, for speech and music. Ongoing research is working out the functional organization of these and other human auditory skills.
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Lecture 16: Music
Download the PDF The functional organization of music in human beings. NOTE: Lecture 17: MEG Decoding and RSA (video not recorded)
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Lecture 18: Language I
Download the PDF Covers the basic organization of language in the brain and the long-standing question of the relationship between thought and language.
- NOTE: Lecture 17: MEG Decoding and RSA (video not recorded)
- NOTE: Lecture 19: Language II (class canceled—video not recorded)
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Lecture 20: Theory of Mind & Mentalizing
Download the PDF The ability of humans to think about what other people are thinking is implemented in brain regions highly specialized for this function alone.
NOTE: Lecture 19: Language II (class canceled—video not recorded)
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Lecture 21: Brain Networks
Download the PDF Looks at the major white matter tracts in the human brain, predicting function and correlations between regions.
NOTE: Lecture 22: Experimental Design (student breakout groups—video not recorded) NOTE: Lecture 23: Deep Networks (2021) (video will be added soon)
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Lecture 24: Attention and Awareness
Download the PDF Looks at the differences in the mind and brain between perceptual information we are aware of versus information we are not. NOTE: Lecture 23: Deep Networks (2021) (video will be added soon)
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