C126: Perception

Professor: David Whitney

GSIs: Peter Ren, Jeff Ortega
Andi Garon, Akshat Gupta
course website: bcourses.berkeley.edu
What is this course all about?

THE BRAIN

How do we (our brains) perceive?

How is the brain organized?
Where in the brain is consciousness?

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 Why take this course?

Scientific frontiers:
-The origin of the universe
-The origin of life
-The nature of matter
-The nature of the brain and consciousness

The brain: the most complicated thing we know

The purpose of the brain: Perception

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 Visual Perception:

1. Huge proportion of brain devoted to vision

2. Understand the brain by studying vision

3. Enormously complicated problem, seemingly

effortless (e.g., failure of computer vision)
4. The science of vision is accessible
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1. Large portion of brain for vision

Vision doesn’t end with an eye! 5

 Visual Perception:

1/2 of the brain

for VISION!!!

Huge proportion of the BRAIN devoted to vision

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Visual Cortex

Monkey
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Visual Cortex

Human
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2. Understanding the brain by studying vision

Example: Face Perception

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Understanding the brain by studying vision

Fusiform Face Area (FFA)

Human Brain10
 Understanding the brain by studying vision

What happens when Fusiform Face Area (FFA) is damaged?

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 What does the FFA tell us?

General principle:
Brain has modules (regions) devoted to specific
perceptual tasks (like face perception…and
many other things too...)

Conclusion:
Studying visual perception can help us
understand the brain.

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How do we study visual perception?

-physics/geometry
-biology (neurophysiology)
-visual arts (3D representation)
-medicine (neurological case studies)
-psychology (phenomenology/psychophysics)
-computer vision (image understanding)

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How do we study visual perception?

-physics/geometry + biology (neurophysiology)

Optics
Light transduction
Anatomy
Physiology, cell function
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 How do we study visual perception?
- visual arts (3D representation,
movies, painting, sculpture)

Alexa Meade

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Julian Beever
How do we study visual perception?

-medicine (neurological case studies)

Brain damage: face blindness, motion

blindness, color blindness, visuomotor
impairments, etc. 16
How do we study visual perception?

-psychology (phenomenology/psychophysics)

Psychophysics:
Relate a physical stimulus with a psychological
state (percept). An objective method.

E.g., measure the minimum light detection (e.g.,

stars at night)

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How do we study visual perception?

-computer vision (image understanding)

Modeling the visual system to help understand it.

Artificial visual systems.
E.g., computer face recognition?

Turns out to be very difficult……

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3. Enormously complicated problem
Why no artificial visual system?
1 of 1000 examples of the difficulty:
3D world - 2D retinal image - 3D Perception
Brain creates 3D interpretation…how?

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Jesse “the body” ventura on The X-Files
 4. Vision is accessible
We are all vision scientists

Moon illusion
Vection: self motion

“Top Secret” 1984

Illusions the exception, not
the rule
They give us the limits,
rules, heuristics of the
system 20
 Recurring concepts of the
course
1. Autocalibration
2. Neural democracy rules
3. Measure then model
4. Replace ambiguity with certainty
5. Bet on the familiar or non-accidental

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 Autocalibration
Example:
Vision from night to day.
diverse situations, need flexibility.

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Example: motion auto-calibration

Neural democracy rules 23

 Measure then model

Replace ambiguity with

certainty

Bet on the familiar or

non-accidental

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 Measure then model

Sparse information can give

rise to strong percepts.
E.g., Biological motion:

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 Replace ambiguity with certainty

Multiple interpretations,
Why such strong percept?

Ambiguous information: go
with familiar, common, use
heuristics

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 Bet on the familiar or non-accidental

Example 2: 3D perception

3D to 2D and back:
Retina is flat
Pictures work

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 The
3D Problem
to 2D and back

Many different 3D objects can have the same 2D silhouette

Many different 3D objects can have the same 2D silhouette
Visual system selects the most likely
Visual system selects the most likely
Usually only one or two interpretations possible
But usually only one or two interpretations possible

Measure this, try to model this

To solve the ambiguity, select most common, non-accidental
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Select most common, non-accidental interpretation
Use heuristics: E.g., Convexity

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3D perception: Bet on the familiar or non-
accidental

Concave faces

Faces are never folded 30

 High-level perception:
Visual memory, attention and
consciousness

Do we really see all this

detail ?

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 Practical relevance:
Pilots ignore airplane on runway

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Haines, 1989; Also JAL 516, 2024
 Dan Simon’s Door Movie

Very little of what we

think we see is actually
registered and accessible

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What will you know at the
end of the course

• Sensation, perception, and brain

research

• How to question the commonplace

events, notice details that reveal
function of brain and mind

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 Structure of Course
Exams:
midterm + final (Multiple choice, lecture focused)
+ disc section (incl RPP) + questions +observation paper
Web Site:
bcourses
Lectures, readings:
-Wolfe (~1 chapter per week)
-Additional book readings available if you need more
-Lecture == readings; TAKE NOTES!
-I’ll do my best to podcast lectures, but can’t
guarantee... Podcast does NOT replace lecture.
-1 min quiz
-Come to class
-Come to class
-COME TO CLASS
Waitlist info
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Questions?
C126: The world is in your brain

Magritte

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