Biopsychology Related Animations

On this page are links to a collection of biopsychology related PowerPoint demonstrations and illustrations.  The explanations are often thin at this point because they are intended as class presentations with the instructor filling in the gaps.   Please feel free to use them if they help you.  They are stored here in two format: as PowerPoint animations where they play very similarly to the way they work in class.  These page require the animation player which can be obtained here.  They are also in gif format as slides but the dynamic properties and sounds of the demonstrations are lost.

• Receptive Field Animation - illustrates the basic concepts of receptive field operation, such as summation and antagonism.
  • As a PowerPoint Animation
  • As a Slide Show
• Receptive Fields as Edge Detectors Animation - presents the ideas that the antagonism of receptive fields enhances edges.  It includes demonstrations of some perceptual phenomena that support this contention.
  • As a PowerPoint Animation
  • As a Slide Show
• The Volley Principle - a general illustration of how the Volley principle might help encode frequencies above the firing rate of single neurons.
  • As a PowerPoint Animation
  • As a Slide Show
• The Stretch Reflex - a general description of this reflex.
• Control Systems Theory - an illustration of this concept as a way of understanding the basics of goal directed behavior.

since October 8, 1999