1. Current Issues Sensory substitution: Visual cortex in the blind (Current Directions 6, 2005)

2. Current Issues Merging neuroplasticity and neuroprostheses (Nature reviews Neuroscience 6, 2005) Retina Cortex Optic nerve “In two common causes of blindness, retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration (ARMD), there is a relatively selective degeneration of the photoreceptor layer of the retina. On the other hand, ganglion cells within the inner retinal layers survive in large numbers and respond to electrical simulation even in advanced stages of the diseases.”

3. Neuroesthetics Some orbitofrontal olfactory neurons don’t respond to intensity pleasant unpleasant firing time But do respond to pleasantness Source: Dana Small, “There is no accounting for flavor without having first experienced it”, 1/06

4. Neuroesthetics Midbrain tegmentum dopamine neurons, response to Withheld reward: expected reward real reward Source; “Comparing Pepsi to Picasso: Neural valuation responses to aesthetic And consummatory preference”, 1/06