https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/9-13-the-human-brain-spring-2019/
The important question is not where certain mental processes are located in the brain, but which processes are and how they’re related. “Architecture of the mind”
Different ways to study the brain.
$$ E_k = \frac{RT}{zF}\ln{\frac{[K^+]_o}{[K^+]_i}} $$
Back third of the brain does vision. Animals don’t do language.
Four main components
Can measure the receptive field of a neuron by measuring the neuron while moving a light source to see when it fires. Retinotopic maps show how neurons in the visual cortex respond to an image. Need attention to be fixated at a point. Similar maps can be constructed for touch (which part of the body is touched), audio (frequencies)
Cortical area: region of the cortex with a distinct function, connectivity to other areas, and sometimes cytoarchitecture (physical differences)
There are areas that respond to motion in a specific direction (ex: top right to bottom left). This is similar to a convolutional filter but with a temporal dimension. Is this optical flow? Different areas for moving objects and stationary objects.
There is a difference in the response of a neuron and its causal role. A neuron can be artificially stimulated to isolate its causality.