Biology 70 - Introduction to Psychobiology
Section II: Sensory Systems

Question and Answer Page - Fall 2007

Send questions regarding course material via e-mail to Professor Switkes. Look for a response to be posted on this page! e-mail does not sleep!

Date Topics
Tues, 23 Oct 2007 18:27:52 course outline
Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:52:59 Lecture Questions


DATE:

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 18:27:52

QUESTION:


Hi,

I'm a student in the Bio 70 class. I recall you saying at the beginning of the quarter something about outlines to your portion of the course being offered online. I would like to have a copy of the outlines, if they do indeed exist. Could you please tell me where I can find them online?

Thanks,

[student's name]

ANSWER:

Hello [student's name],


I'M GLAD YOU ASKED !!
The Biology 70, Part II, WWW page begins
http://www.biology.ucsc.edu/ug/courses/index.html
goes here
http://www.chemistry.ucsc.edu/teaching/switkes/BIO70/index.html
to here
http://www.chemistry.ucsc.edu/teaching/switkes/BIO70/index.html#LECTS
where you can then link to individual outlines and resources for each
lecture; for example for Lecture 1
http://www.chemistry.ucsc.edu/teaching/switkes/BIO70/lecture1.html


The exam for part II will be based on the material indicated in these outlines

Gene

Eugene Switkes
Professor of Chemistry and Psychobiology

DATE:

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:52:59

QUESTION:

hi professor!

i was just answering the outline questions from lecture
and i had a couple of questions that i was wondering if
you could address. thank you so much for your help : )

1.do we need to know information about the Hermann Grid for the midterm?

2. What is the difference between parallel streams and concurrent streams in visual processing pathways?

[student's name]

ANSWER:

[student's name],

I'm pleased that you are putting together the material.
Although I won't be able just to repeat the lectures for
the WWW Q&A (I'll post your questions there too) or during
the review session, I'm happy to go over anything that
was unclear. You have good questions:

>1.do we need to know information about the Hermann Grid
>for the midterm?

Yes. You should understand the 'simple' interpretation of
the Hermann Grid illusion in terms of the responses of neurons
with concentric receptive fields (contrast detectors). Neurons
with this type of receptive field are the 2D version of lateral
inhibition and are found for retinal ganglion cell RF's.
The site http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/lum_herGrid/index.html
also describes the "simple" or "classical" explanation.


>2. What is the difference between parallel streams and
>concurrent streams in visual processing pathways?
>
Parrallel streams and concurrent streams describe the same
thing-- differing anatomical pathways that specialize for
analyzing (in parallel) differing aspects of the visual
propreties of an image (e.g. color and motion).
We discussed the lower-level (early visual) processing
magnocellular vs parvocellular pathways and
the cortical temporal vs parietal ptaheays.

Hope that helps,

Gene

Eugene Switkes
Professor of Chemistry

Eugene Switkes
Professor of Chemistry and Psychobiology