The Brain and Space

Go to Course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/human-brain

Introduction

### Course Review: The Brain and Space on Coursera **Course Overview:** “The Brain and Space,” available on Coursera, is a compelling course designed to explore the intricate relationship between our brain’s processing of spatial information and our cognitive functions. Our sense of spatial awareness seems effortless, but behind the scenes, the brain is performing a remarkable series of computations to help us navigate the complex world around us—from recognizing familiar faces to catching a ball in mid-flight. The course is anchored in the latest neuroscientific research presented through engaging videos, quizzes, and hands-on experiments, making it accessible to a broad audience ranging from curious learners to professionals in psychology, neuroscience, and related fields. #### Course Structure and Content: The course is systematically organized into six key modules, each tackling different aspects of spatial awareness and brain function: 1. **Course Introduction and Vision (Part 1):** Here, learners get acquainted with the course's main objectives and delve into how our eyes detect and interpret light to perceive spatial location. Through historical anecdotes about scientists’ discoveries, participants will engage in an experiment that involves wearing special goggles that turn the visual field upside down, providing a unique perspective on spatial perception. 2. **Vision (Part 2), the Body, and Neural Signals:** This module dives deeper into the 3D visual scene, body senses, and the underlying neural mechanisms. With hands-on experiments such as throwing beanbags at visual targets while wearing prisms, learners can directly experience the concepts being discussed. 3. **Brain Maps:** Understanding how the brain organizes spatial information is central to this module. The lecture emphasizes “receptive fields,” neuron sensitivity, and bodily references, illustrating how our brains categorize and understand the spatial world. The insights into "phantom" sensations provide a fascinating context for the brain's vulnerability and adaptability. 4. **Sound and Brain Representations:** This unit tackles the enigmatic puzzle of sound localization. It emphasizes the brain’s integration of various auditory clues to determine where sound originates and introduces interesting concepts such as brain representation and how the brain encodes information differently from visual and tactile modalities. 5. **Reference Frames and Navigation:** Such navigation involves various reference frames that differ across our sensory modalities. This module offers an essential understanding of how human beings interact with space and the roles played by balance and movement in maintaining spatial orientation. 6. **Memory and Cognition:** The final module ties together the principles gained throughout the course, focusing on how space interacts with memory and cognitive functions. The contributions of John O'Keefe and the Mosers regarding “place fields” and grid cells are discussed, highlighting the intricate interplay between memory and spatial reasoning—culminating in the conclusions drawn from their celebrated Nobel Prize-winning work. #### Recommendations: “The Brain and Space” is an enlightening journey that provides a comprehensive understanding of how our brains construct our surroundings and sense of self. For students interested in neuroscience, psychology, or even philosophy, this course offers a unique lens through which to examine our cognitive processes. **Pros:** - Engaging video content that combines lectures with experiments. - A well-structured curriculum that progressively builds on complex concepts. - Access to historical perspectives and cutting-edge research in neurosciences. - Opportunities for interactive learning and personal exploration. **Cons:** - Some modules contain dense content, which may require additional background knowledge in neuroscience for full engagement. - A higher video load in one module could be overwhelming for some students, though it's manageable with the division into part quizzes. Overall, I highly recommend “The Brain and Space” for its insightful content and innovative approach to learning. Whether you wish to enhance your knowledge or simply satisfy your curiosity about how we perceive the world, this course offers invaluable insights that linger long after the final video. Enroll now and explore the fascinating world of spatial cognition!

Syllabus

Course Introduction and Vision (Part 1)

This module contains an introduction to the course as a whole (Video 1.1) and an exploration of how our eyes detect light and deduce the location light is coming from (Videos 1.2-1.6). You'll also learn about how scientists from Democritus to Alhazen to Kepler figured this out. The final video for the module involves an experiment to test what happens when special goggles turn the world upside down (Video 1.7). I'll show experiments frequently throughout this course -- they are how we know what we know. This module’s quiz is ungraded and available to both auditors and certificate students. Consider it a sample of the style of question in the quizzes for the remaining modules, and an opportunity to determine if you’d like to pursue a certificate for this course.

In this unit, we cover the visual scene in 3D - the many clues to depth. We then turn to body senses (position and touch) and how our brains detect the configuration of our own bodies. Along the way, we cover the resting membrane potential, the action potential, and how they arise. Finally, we bring vision and the body together, and throw some beanbags at a visual target while wearing prisms! This material is covered in Making Space, chapters 2 and 3.

In this unit, we turn to the brain and how it uses the spatial position of neurons within the brain to organize information about the spatial position of stimuli in the world (Making Space chapter 4). You'll learn about how we identify where one object ends and another begins, what a receptive field is, and how some neurons are sensitive to edges and the boundaries of objects. Maps occur in both visual cortex and body (somatosensory) cortex, and these maps may be responsible for various "phantom" sensations (examples from normal vision, patients with body part amputations, and electrical stimulation experiments).

In module 4, we turn to the fascinating puzzle of how we deduce sound location--a process that requires quite a bit of detective work. Our brains piece together multiple types of clues, including subtle differences in timing, loudness, frequency content, and how sounds appear to change as we turn our heads. Because our ears don't form images of sounds, our brains don't have to use maps to encode sound location. The second half of the videos this module concern alternative forms of brain representation, how the brain translates between different types of representation, and what we know about brain representations for sound location. The material is covered in chapter 5, "Sherlock Ears" and chapter 6, "Moving with Maps and Meters", in Making Space. Be forewarned, there are about 70 minutes of video this module, as compared to previous modules' 50-60 minutes. After watching the full set, you'll see why these videos are grouped together as a unit. To make things more manageable, we've broken the quiz into two parts; that way, you can get feedback on one part before moving on to the next, if you like.

This module we turn to how spatial locations are defined, and discuss the concept of a reference frame. Initially, reference frames are quite different for visual, auditory, and somatosensory information. Visual location is defined with respect to the eyes, whereas sound locations are detected with respect to the head and ears, and tactile locations are detected based on body surface position. As you'll see, the brain transforms these signals into new reference frames to facilitate interactions between these sensory systems. We then consider space on a larger scale, and ask how we know where we are and how we navigate from one place to another. Knowledge of self-motion relies in part on the vestibular system, our sense of balance. The vestibular system works in concert with vision and motor systems to update our sense of position and keep us from getting lost. This module's material is covered in chapters 7, "Your Sunglasses Are in the Milky Way", and 8, "Going Places" of Making Space.

In this final module of the course, we build several important links between the sense of space and other kinds of cognition. Videos 6.1-6.5 concern the relationship between space and memory. Memory is reflected in multiple different kinds of neural mechanisms and involves multiple brain regions. The memory and spatial functions of these mechanisms and brain regions overlap. Video 6.5 in particular features work by John O'Keefe concerning response patterns known as "place fields" in the hippocampus, and work by May-Britt and Edvard Moser concerning grid cells. This seminal work was recognized by the 2014 Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology. Videos 6.6-6.9 turn to thought more generally, and present a series of theories and experiments that suggest that the brain is actually using sensory and motor structures to think and reason. Thus, our brain systems for space may be engaged in a wide set of mental functions, which are shaped by the multiple purposes of this neural infrastructure. This module's material is covered in chapters 9, "Space and Memory", and 10, "Thinking about Thinking" of Making Space. I hope you enjoy this synthesis of all you have learned and what it means!