2021 Human Brain Functions and Their Measurements

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Academic unit or major
Graduate major in Mechanical Engineering
Instructor(s)
Yoshida Takako 
Class Format
Lecture     
Media-enhanced courses
Day/Period(Room No.)
Tue3-4()  
Group
-
Course number
MEC.L431
Credits
1
Academic year
2021
Offered quarter
3Q
Syllabus updated
2021/3/19
Lecture notes updated
-
Language used
English
Access Index

Course description and aims

Robust, qualitative, psychophysical assessment on the relationship between the physical environment and the user’s subjective experience is one of the core skills to optimize the machine usability, design, interface, etc. This course focuses on the latest brain science and human-machine integrated system topics related to it and, shows some of the methods and limitations to assess the human internal process.

Student learning outcomes

To understand the human subjective experiences and their scientific measurement methods, not for the basic brain science purpose but also for the applied purpose such as user experience assessment for the artificial system.

Keywords

Brain science, perception and psychophysics, vision, haptic, multimodal perception process, embodiment

Competencies that will be developed

Specialist skills Intercultural skills Communication skills Critical thinking skills Practical and/or problem-solving skills

Class flow

Each week, students experience a couple of human perception demonstrations and discuss on it in English. The classes are sometimes held in some of the research facilities such as motion capture room, fMRI brain scanning room etc..

Course schedule/Required learning

  Course schedule Required learning
Class 1 Human sensory systems and internal model, How human vision is different from the camera Understanding the difference between human vision and camera.
Class 2 Eye movement, visual attention, and usability test, brain conscious process capacity To understand the human eye movement and visual attention.
Class 3 Color perception, 3D perception, and their applications To understand the human visual perception and their applications including computer vision.
Class 4 Biological motion, Motion perception, motion capture techniques, and robot design To understand how rich the human body movement information is by biological motion.
Class 5 Active and passive touch, crossmodal perception and haptic virtual reality To understand the design of the multimodal displays.
Class 6 Psychophysical methods and brain imaging methods To understand the varieties of psychophysics method, brain imaging method, and their visualization.
Class 7 Human self-body perception, social brain and theory of mind as a ghost in the machine, brain and body hack by the machine To understand how our sense of "me" can be evoked in our physical brain and body organs, especially in virtual reality.

Out-of-Class Study Time (Preparation and Review)

To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.

Textbook(s)

N/A

Reference books, course materials, etc.

Handouts

Assessment criteria and methods

Grading is based on 80% from papers, and 20% on discussion section participation.

Related courses

  • MEC.H231 : Design Engineering
  • MEC.L331 : Basic Bioengineering
  • HCB.M461 : Laboratory Training on Human Brain Functions and Their Measurements
  • LAT.A405 : Cognitive Psychology
  • ICT.H313 : Sensation and Perception Systems
  • ICT.H411 : Basic Sensation Informatics
  • ICT.H422 : Computational Brain
  • SCE.I531 : Computer Vision
  • CSC.T421 : Human Computer Interaction
  • LST.A410 : Advanced Neuroscience

Prerequisites (i.e., required knowledge, skills, courses, etc.)

Basic knowledge on the cognitive science, human perception, and statistics essential.

Other

It's preferable to take "Laboratory Training on Human Brain Functions and Their Measurements" as well.

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