PSY 162 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Oliver Sacks, Parietal Lobe, Temporal Lobe
Cortical Cells
● Hypercomplex cells
○ Respond to movement in particular orientations
○ Have areas of excitation & inhibition
○ Critical for detecting edges and orientations
Hierarchical Organization
● We have cells in our visual cortex representing each orientation at each point in the visual
field
● At each successive state in visual processing-
○ Neurons become selective for more precise features
The Role of the What System
● The what system is located in the temporal lobe
○ When this region is damaged-
■ Difficulty recognizing objects
■ Can also develop difficulty identifying color
■ Visual form agnosia
○ The case of Mrs. R
○ Can be incredibly specific
(She can say the watch has a circle and has number son it but she cannot name. If she
touches it she can name it)
● The what system can be divided into form & color systems
● Color system has less acuity
○ Oliver Sacks wrote about an artist who lost his ability to see color
○ Could still recognize objects but lost a lot of enjoyment in life
■ Peoples grey skin grossed him out
■ He couldn’t look at food while he ate it
■ Began to only eat achromatic foods (olives, rice etc)
● Located in the parietal lobe
● When this system is damaged-
○ Ss cannot tell where objects are on the world
○ Trouble seeing motion & depth
○ Telling left from right
○ Seeing complex objects as whole
Equiluminant Colors
● Different colors w/ equal luminance
● Can be seen by the what system-
○ But invisible (poorly seen) to the colorblind where system
○ Artists have recognized these as special
■ Report a sense of movement/vibration
○ These are hard to make
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Document Summary
We have cells in our visual cortex representing each orientation at each point in the visual field. At each successive state in visual processing- Neurons become selective for more precise features. The what system is located in the temporal lobe. Can be incredibly specific (she can say the watch has a circle and has number son it but she cannot name. If she touches it she can name it) The what system can be divided into form & color systems. Oliver sacks wrote about an artist who lost his ability to see color. Could still recognize objects but lost a lot of enjoyment in life. He couldn"t look at food while he ate it. Began to only eat achromatic foods (olives, rice etc) Ss cannot tell where objects are on the world. Can be seen by the what system- But invisible (poorly seen) to the colorblind where system. Doesn"t work the same under all lighting conditions from all distances.