RESOURCES

Talks

Date: May 2014
Location: UCM/UCSD Summer School
Topic: Language, Music and Cognition
Link: Video of May 2014 UCM/UCSD Purves talk

Speaker: Dale Purves
Location: Duke University
Audience: Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at UC Berkeley
Link: Video of March 2013 Purves Redwood (UC Berkeley) talk
Summary: Information about the physical world is excluded from visual stimuli by the nature of biological vision (the inverse optics problem). Nonetheless, humans and other visual animals routinely succeed in their environments. The talk explains how the assignment of perceptual values to visual stimuli according to the frequency of occurrence of stimulus patterns resolves the inverse problem and determines the basic visual qualities we see. This interpretation of vision implies that the best (and perhaps the only) way to understand visual system circuitry is to evolve it, an idea supported by recent work.

Date: Jan 2014
Location: Beckman Center in Irvine, CA
Topic:Light of Evolution VIII: Darwinian Thinking in the Social Sciences
Link: Video of Jan 2014 Arthur M. Sackler Talk

Date: Dec 2013
Location: John Hopkins
Topic: Current Topics in Neuroscience
Link: Video of Dec 2013 John Hopkins Talk

Interviews

Date: May 2015
Location: Duke University
Topic: Duke-NUS Dean’s Conversations – with Professor Dale Purves
Link: Video of May 2015 Duke-NUS Interview

Date: Apr 2014
Location: Duke University
Topic: The Function and Evolution of the Visual System
Link: Video of Apr 2014 Neuro TV Talk

Date: Jun 2010
Host: Dr. Kirsten Sanford
Topic: Dr. Kiki’s Science Hour 51: What’s In A Brain?
Link: Dr. Kiki’s Science Hour 51

Date: Dec 2002
Host: Tom Bearden
Topic: How We See
Summary: Appearance on News Hour with Jim Lehrer “An account of some of the work considered on this site was featured on the PBS News Hour with Jim Lehrer on December 25, 2002. A transcript and other information is available on the PBS website. The broadcast can be viewed in its entirety by clicking the image to the left.”
Link: PBS Website

Course

Name of Course: Visual Perception and the Brain
Course Summary: The course considers how what we see is generated by the visual system, and what visual perception indicates about how the brain works. The evidence is drawn from neuroscience, psychology, science history and philosophy. Although the discussions is informed by visual system anatomy and physiology, the focus is on perception.
Link: Coursera

Books

Music as Biology

Author: Dale Purves
Summary: The universality of musical tones has long fascinated philosophers, scientists, musicians and ordinary listeners. Why do human beings worldwide find some tone combinations consonant and others dissonant? Why do we make music using only a small number of scales out the billions that are possible? Why do differently organized scales elicit different emotions? Why are there so few notes in scales? Music as Biology argues that biology offers answers to these and other questions on which conventional music theory is silent.Read the flier for a full description
Read more about the book at Duke Today.
(Harvard University Press, Feb 2017)

Neuroscience, 5th Edition

Author(s): Purves, Augustine, Fitzpatrick, Hall, LaMantia, White
Publisher: Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA., 2012

Neuroscience, Fifth Edition is a comprehensive textbook created primarily for medical, premedical, and undergraduate students. In a single concise and approachable volume, the text guides students through the challenges and excitement of this rapidly changing field. The book’s length and accessibility of its writing are a successful combination that has proven to work equally well for medical students and in undergraduate neuroscience courses. Being both comprehensive and authoritative, the book is also appropriate for graduate and professional use. The sixth edition will be available in 2016.
Book info at Sinauer [sinauer.com] »

Why We See What We Do Redux

Author(s): Purves,Lotto
Publisher: Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA., 2003

Although the ideas and evidence about the genesis of what we see in the First Edition were appreciated in some quarters, the reception in others was distinctly cool. Given the opinion of some critics that the wholly empirical concept of vision we proposed was either unbelievable or incomprehensible, we felt duty bound to try again. Our objective was, and remains, to present a different and seemingly inevitable framework for understanding perception and its underlying neural mechanisms.…We hope this new edition will encourage more readers to consider this concept of vision and its implications for interpreting, modeling, and ultimately understanding the structure and function of the human visual system.
Download Flyer for New Edition (PDF)

Brains

Author(s): Purves
Publisher: Financial Times Press Science, New Jersey, 2010

“Dale Purves Brains is my favorite sort of reading—an engaging and intelligent scientific autobiography full of vivid personal and historical accounts; the story not only of a life but of an intellectual pursuit. Purves has a unique voice, lively, outspoken, and very human—and his love of science comes through on every page.”
-Oliver Sacks
Available at Amazon!

Principles of Cognitive Neuroscience, Second Edition

Author(s): Purves, Brannon, Cabeza, Huettel, LaBar, Platt, Woldorff
Publisher: Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA., 2012

Principles of Cognitive Neuroscience, Second Edition is a textbook written for graduate and undergraduate students seeking an introduction to this emerging field. It was published by Sinauer Associates in the fall of 2012. The text is intended to inform readers about the rapidly growing canon of cognitive neuroscience, and to make clear the many challenges that remain in this field. The editor/authors are Dale Purves, Elizabeth Brannon, Roberto Cabeza, Scott Huettel, Kevin LaBar, Michael Platt, Marty Woldorff.

Book info at Sinauer [sinauer.com] »

Perceiving Geometry

Author(s): Purves, Howe
Publisher: Springer: New York, NY, 2005

This monograph was published by Springer in the summer of 2005. The book describes how the full range of geometrical percepts and illusions can be accounted for by the empirical relationship between real-world geometry and the projected images that humans have always experienced. It should be of interest to anyone interested in the perception of form and distance.
Book info at Springer [springeronline.com] »

Why We See What We Do

Author(s): Purves, Lotto
Publisher: Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA., 2003

Why We See What we Do is a book that deals with much of the material presented in this website. It was published in late 2002 by Sinauer Associates, Inc. A second edition is in progress.
Book info at Google Books »

Neural Activity and the Growth of the Brain

Author(s): Purves
Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1942

This book is now out of print, but the short lecture series may still be of interest. Brain growth is considered at a macroscopic level by examining brain maps and their molecular substructure, and at a cellular level by investigating the neuronal interactions that influence the formation and maintenance of these structures. The ways that experience influences the maturation of the brain at both macroscopic and microscopic levels are described, and some of the conventional wisdom about these issues re-examined. Anyone interested in how the brain stores information may find the lectures of interest.

Body and Brain: A trophic theory of neural connections

Author(s): Purves
Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1988

This book has recently gone out of print. It may nonetheless be of interest to many readers because of its broad historical coverage of the relationship between the growth of the body and the complementary growth and organization of the brain. A particular focus is the development of neurons and their synaptic connections, and the mediation of these interactions by trophic agents. The link between somatic targets and their innervation is considered using simple systems such as the neuromuscular junction and the innervation of autonomic ganglion cells as examples of processes that are presumably characteristic of interactions throughout the nervous system.
Now available as download.

Principles of Neural Development

Author(s): Purves, Lichtman
Publisher: Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, 1985

This book went out of print several years ago. The comprehensive account of neural development as it was studied through the mid-1980s and the history of the field prior to that time is of course still pertinent, and will be of interest to many neuroscientists.
Now available as download.
Book info on Amazon »

Readings in Developmental Neurobiology

Editors: Patterson, Purves
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 1982

A compilation of classic papers in developmental neurobiology.
Book info on Amazon »

Miscellaneous

Sound and Music Research on NPR

Summary: “Work on sound and music was featured on All Things Considered on National Public Radio on August 8, 2003. The report concerns the publication of a paper on the subject in the Journal of Neuroscience and features an interview with Purves Lab member David Schwartz. Use the links to the right to hear the NPR piece and read the paper. See Publications for more recent work on music, and General Articles for recent media accounts.”

Appearance on News Hour with Jim Lehrer

Summary: “An account of some of the work considered on this site was featured on the PBS News Hour with Jim Lehrer on December 25, 2002. A transcript and other information is available on the PBS website. The broadcast can be viewed in its entirety by clicking the image to the left.”

Natural Scene Image Database Available

Summary: “We have collected a database of range images of natural scenes. For colleagues who are interested in using this database, please contact Dale Purves for more information.”
Now available as download.

Sylvius for Neuroscience: Visual Glossary of Human Neuroanatomy

S. Mark Williams, Leonard E. White, and Andrew C. Mace
Sylvius for Neuroscience: Visual Glossary of Human Neuroanatomy is an interactive CD reference guide to the structure of the human nervous system. Students can quickly search for a neuroanatomical structure or term, or view an image (or animation) and basic information about the structure just by entering the page number from the text. Students can take notes on the content and share their annotations with other Sylvius users. The program is an essential study aid for learning basic human neuroanatomy.
More information is available at sinauer.com.

Selections from Media

The following articles, TV or radio spots about work in the lab are addressed to general audiences, and may provide additional insight for those who are not scientifically trained, or simply interested in what the media have had to say about this approach.

2010 – 2014

SentientPotential.com (2013) The Direction and Future of Neuroscience: May 14

Eurekalert! (2012) Emotional expression in music and speech share similar tonal properties: March 14

International Cognition and Culture (2012) Emotion in Eastern and Western Music: March 20

ScienceDaily (2012) Emotional expression in music and speech share similar properties: March 14

The Straits Times (2010) The (vowel) sounds of music. Newshub

2007 – 2009

Alleyne, R (2009) Music mimics the emotion of speech. The Telegraph: December 14

Bates, KL (2009) The biological link between music and speech. Duke News and Communications: December 3

Choi, Charles Q (2009) News Scan Briefs: Explaining the Aperture Illusion. Scientific American: March 29

DeLay, H (2009) Music shows the emotion of the human voice. Examiner.com: December 2

Daily News and Analysis (2009) Musical chords mimic the emotion of speech: December 15

Koerth-Baker, M (2009) The biology of music: why we like what we like: December 14

Purves, D (2009) The visual system and the brain: Hubel and Wiesel Redux. December 21

Vieru, T (2009) Music, Emotions and Speech form a whole. Softpedia: December 3

Duke Medicine News and Communications (2008) Duke Team Explains A Longtime Visual Puzzler In New Way. October 13

Kramer, K (2008) Singvogel Mensch. Sueddeutsche Zeitung Wissen: September 2008

Kruglinski, S (2008) Musical Scales Mimic Sound of Language. Discover Magazine – 100 Top Science Stories of 2007: January

Science News (2008) Scientists explain the ‘flash-lag’ effect. United Press International: October

Than, K (2008) In Search of Music’s Biological Roots. Duke Magazine: May-June

Bates, KL (2007) The Essential Tones of Music Rooted in Human Speech: May 25

Jackson, J (2007) “Virtual Robots” Befuddled by Optical Illusions. National Geographic News: October 11

Just Us (2007) Whither Harmony? June 05

Lodriguss, J (2007) Color in Astronomical Images. Astropix.com

Purves, D (2007) Tones of Music Rooted in Human Speech. ClassBrain.com: May 24

Scenta (2007) Music Tones in Speech: May 25

Science Daily (2007) Essential Tones of Music Rooted in Human Speech: May 24

Tenenbaum, D (2007) Music: The Universal Scale. The Why Files: June 7

Therapytimes.com (2007) Essential Tones Of Music Rooted In Human Speech: June 01

2004 – 2006

Hareyan, A (2006) Brain Statistics help humans perceive hue, saturation and brightness: April 6

Meredith, D (2005) New book explains age-old mystery of geometrical illusions. Duke News Releases: September 30

Haseltine, E (2004) Why your brain doesn’t always make the right decision. Discover Magazine: February 5

2001 – 2003

Ackerman, SJ (2003) Optical illusions: why do we see the way we do? Howard Hughes Medical Institute Bulletin 16(2): 37

Black, R (2003) Science finds key to music. BBC News: August 6

Billock, VA (2003) A framework for vision’s bag of tricks. Science May 2; 300: 742-743

Der Spiegel (2003) Der mensch spricht in Tonleitern. Spiegel Online: August 6

Duke Medicine News and Communications (2003) Vision is a ‘reflex,’ says new book: January 3

El Mundo (2003) Escuchamos con la memoria. elmundosalud.com: August 7

Farley, P (2003) Musical roots may lie in human voice. Newscientist.com: August 3

Folha (2003) Estrutura de tons da musica surgiu da voz humana, sugere estudo. Folha Online: August 6

Kenneally, C (2003) Songs of ourselves. Boston Globe: November 9

Los Angeles Times (2003) Musical Scale is linked to speech. LATimes.com: August 9

Melville, K (2003) Catchy tunes have a common denominator: August 7

Meredith, D (2003) Solving the mystery of musical harmony: Insights from a study of speech. Duke News Releases: August 5

Preidt, R (2003) The Biology of Distance Perception. HealthScout web report.

How We See (2002) Transcript from News Hour with Jim Lehrer that aired December 25th.

Purves D, Lotto RB, Nundy S (2002) Why we see what we do. American Scientist 90(3):236-243.

German translation from Spektrum der Wissenschaft.

Spanish translation from Investigacion y Ciencia.

1998 – 2000

Meredith, D (2000) Color scheme: new vision theory states perception of color depends on neural ‘reflexes.’ Dialogue: Duke University 5: 3

Meredith, D (2000) Tricking the eye or trapping a reflex: vision revisited. Duke Magazine. July-August

Neenan, JM (2000) Colorblind: Why we can be fooled by light and color. HealthScout web report.

Novak, K (1999) Shedding new light on luminance perception. Nature Medicine 5: 1238

Purves D (1999) Perception as probability. Brain Res. Bull. 50: 321

Videos

Dr. Kiki’s Science Hour (2010) Episode 51: What’s in a Brain? featuring Dale Purves

Davidson Films (2008) Making sense of sensory information featuring Dale Purves (short clip taken from the original film)

Duke University News (2007) “Music Rooted in Speech” featuring Dale Purves and Jonathan Choi.

Audio

Scientific American (2012) Emotion in music mirrors speech, 21: March 21

Science Update (2012) Emotional Music: April 17

Knox, R (2003) Origins of music may lie in speech. From NPR’s All Things Considered: August 8

Opinions about this approach to vision

It seems only fair to warn those interested in the merits of the general approach to vision outlined here that opinion has been divided about this work. In fact, the majority opinion, to judge from numerous anonymous and a number of signed reviews, has been quite negative. Recent reviews in Science, Nature, Nature Neuroscience, and the Journal of Neuroscience can be consulted to get some flavor of the various complaints and objections that have been raised. Of course, people should make up their own minds, but it would be misleading to present the material, ideas, and demonstrations here without calling attention to their controversial nature. These caveats apply both to the work on vision and music.

Vince Billock (2003) Books: A framework for vision’s bag of tricks. Science 300:742-743

David Burr, Book Review (2003) Why we see what we do: an empirical theory of vision. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 15: 1074-1076.

Michael Morgan (2003) Vision Quest: A radical theory seeks to overturn current views of how we see the world. Nature 423: 919-920.

Alan Gilchrist (2003) Looking backward: Why we see what we do: an empirical theory of vision. Nature Neuroscience 6:550.