PSYCH 6260 - SPATIALLY
COORDINATED BEHAVIOUR - 2010 Course Outline  

Date

Tentative Topics

Readings / Presentations

Jan 6

Course Introduction

 

PART 1: Basic Concepts

 

Jan 13

Reference frames, coordinate systems, kinematics of translation and rotation

Spatial Representations And Transformations: A Primer.

 Soechting JF, Flanders M. Annu Rev Neurosci. 1992;15:167-91.
Tweed D, Vilis T. J Neurophysiol. 1987 Oct;58(4):832-49.

Jan 20

Coordination, eye-head shoulder geometry, 2-D vs. 3-D control, Donders’ laws for gaze and reach.


The Early Geometry of Visuomotor Transformations

 Geometric computations underlying eye-hand coordination: orientations of the two eyes and the head.
Henriques DY, Medendorp WP, Gielen CC, Crawford JD.
Exp Brain Res. 2003 Sep;152(1):70-8.

Neural control of three-dimensional eye and head movements.
Crawford JD, Martinez-Trujillo JC, Klier EM.
Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2003 Dec;13(6):655-62. Review.

Jan 27

Cortical organization for gaze vs. reach

Brain Tables



Human parietal cortex in action.
Culham JC, Valyear KF.
Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2006 Apr;16(2):205-12. Epub 2006 Mar 24. Review.

Imaging the premotor areas.
Picard N, Strick PL.
Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2001 Dec;11(6):663-72. Review.

Anatomical organization of the eye fields in the human and non-human primate frontal cortex.
Amiez C, Petrides M.
Prog Neurobiol. 2009 Oct;89(2):220-30. Epub 2009 Aug 7. Review.

PART 2: Encoding and Updating Visual Goals


Feb 3

A: Coding visual direction (egocentric, allocentric, extrapolation)


Goal Coding.

 Human parietal "reach region" primarily encodes intrinsic visual direction, not extrinsic movement direction, in a visual motor dissociation task.
Fernandez-Ruiz J, Goltz HC, DeSouza JF, Vilis T, Crawford JD.
Cereb Cortex. 2007 Oct;17(10):2283-92. Epub 2007 Jan 10.

Combination of neuronal signals representing object-centered location and saccade direction in macaque supplementary eye field.
Moorman DE, Olson CR.
J Neurophysiol. 2007 May;97(5):3554-66. Epub 2007 Feb 28.

Feb 10

Updating visual direction: behaviour and neural mechanisms


 

Gaze-centered remapping of remembered visual space in an open-loop pointing task.
Henriques DY, Klier EM, Smith MA, Lowy D, Crawford JD.
J Neurosci. 1998 Feb18(4):1583-94.

Gaze-centered updating of visual space in human parietal cortex.
Medendorp WP, Goltz HC, Vilis T, Crawford JD.
J Neurosci. 2003 Jul16;23(15):6209-14.

The updating of the representation of visual space in parietal cortex by intended eye movements.
Duhamel JR, Colby CL, Goldberg ME.
Science. 1992 Jan 3;255(5040):90-2.

Feb 17

                    Reading Week


Feb 24

Encoding and updating in 3-D


 

PART 3: Feedforward Transformations     


Mar 3

Caculating the desired movement vector from goal and gaze/hand position


Mar 10

Reference Frame transformations: Behaviour


Mar 17

Reference Frame transformations: neural mechanisms


Mar 24

2-D to 3-D transformations


 

PART 4: Non-Visual transformations


Mar 31

Transformations for non-visual goals: somatosensory, auditory…


Details will be posted on the website as the course evolves. Most classes will consist of an introduction by the professor, followed by 1-2 informal, interactive paper presentations on the topic, led by a student. The final X classes will include formal seminar presentations.

Marking Scheme:

20% for informal article presentations and class discussion.

20% for formal seminar presentation.

60% for final essay. This essay will be 5000-6000 words. It will describe a real-life situation (like catching a baseball, for example) in scientific terms, incorporating something from each lecture section. It is due Apr 15. 1% will be deducted for each day late.

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