Week 8
This week on the course we discussed the human auditory system, concluding the coverage of sensory systems on the course. This weeks exercise on sensory systems was particularly interesting.
This weeks lecture covered the human auditory system, including the structure of the ear, the neuronal pathways between the ear and the auditory cortex, sound localization, and auditory processing in the auditory cortex. The lecture started with already familiar content that was also covered by the book and introduced in previous studies. In the second half of the lecture, we learned about tonotopic organization in the auditory cortex and sensory learning in the auditory system. We found it particularly neat that the auditory system is capable of shifting the frequency its most sensitive to following brain stimulation. Overall, the lecture complemented the contents of the book very well.
The fourth task of this week’s exercise was particularly engaging. The topic was sensory prostheses, the existence of which I hadn’t really thought of before. I learned about the functional principle of cochlear stimulation based hearing aids in the book. It’s fascinating how technology and medicine together can improve the lives of so many people. Moreover, the topic of sensory prostheses raises many questions, such as whether we could one day develop a fully functional prosthesis for the visual system to restore vision.
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