Chapter 3 - The Electrophysiological Brain

Links and Media

A demonstration of EEG event-related potentials (ERPs) to visual stimuli
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXXxL0EOJqs
Professor Steve Luck has made available slides, videos, and other educational material relating to ERP analysis (for researchers who will gain hands-on experience)
http://erpinfo.org/educational-materials https://www.youtube.com/user/erplabtoolbox
Introduction to magnetoencephalography (MEG) recorded at MIT
http://video.mit.edu/watch/introduction-to-magnetoencephalography-7158/
An interview with Professor Horace Barlow who conducted seminal work on how neurons code visual information and who introduced the concept of grandmother cells
http://thesciencenetwork.org/programs/the-science-studio/a-conversation-with-horace-barlow
A lecture from Professor Jamie Ward, author of The Student’s Guide to Cognitive Neuroscience on “The Electrophysiological Brain”
www.youtube.com/watch?v=giv5JRwd3eA

Additional Reading

An accessible summary of current findings on “grandmother cells”
Quiroga, R. Quian, Fried, I., & Koch, C. (2013). Meaning from sensory information. Scientific American, 308, 30–35.
Paper discussing the use of EEG oscillations to understand cognition
Ward, L. M. (2003). Synchronous neural oscillations and cognitive processes. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(12), 553–559.
A recent study examining how the N170 ERP component (indicative of face perception) is affected by social and racial categories
Cassidy, K. D., Boutsen, L., Humphreys, G. W., & Quinn, K. A. (2014). Ingroup categorization affects the structural encoding of other-race faces: Evidence from the N170 event-related potential. Social Neuroscience, 9, 235–248 [Free article – link to journal page]

Quizzes

Flashcards