This thesis examines the relation between philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein’s 1940s writings on seeing and seeing aspects and Gestalt psychologist Wolfgang Köhler’s theory of perception as set out in his Gestalt Psychology (1929). I argue that much of the existing literature on the Wittgenstein-Köhler relation distorts Köhler’s ideas and thus also Wittgenstein’s engagement with Köhler’s ideas. This double distortion underrates Köhler’s insights, misconstrues Wittgenstein’s complaints against Köhler, and masks points of contact between the two concerning the nature and description of human perceptual experience. In my view, Wittgenstein sympathizes with Köhler’s call to reflect on basic psychological categories such as “experience”, his respect for the “naïve” experience of the layperson, his method of “rediscovering” pervasive features of experience that escape our notice, and his efforts to identify intellectual prejudices that stymie inquiry. But a warning emerges from Wittgenstein’s discussions of seeing and seeing aspects: It is especially difficult to command a clear view of 'seeing' and its interrelations with other everyday, psychological concepts. I argue that Wittgenstein’s far-reaching criticism of Köhler is that the latter's account of visual “organization” overextends an analogy between seeing and seeing aspects and pushes aside other justifiable comparisons, for example between seeing and thinking and seeing and imagining. A consequence of Wittgenstein's criticism is that Kohler falls short of his aim to depict faithfully naïve visual experience. Moreover, despite Kohler's commitment to battling prejudices, the latter's emphasis on similarities between seeing and seeing aspects to the exclusion of their differences is a form of intellectual prejudice. For Wittgenstein various comparisons are justifiable by appeal to the interrelations between ‘seeing’ and other psychological concepts. A perspicuous view of the concept 'seeing' involves steady appreciation of the multitude of justifiable, criss-crossing comparisons. So although Wittgenstein does not deny Köhler’s claim that organization is a feature of visual experience rather than thinking, he does not unqualifiedly endorse it either. We have conceptual grounds for various ways of speaking about our experiences of aspects.

This thesis examines the relation between philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein’s 1940s writings on seeing and seeing aspects and Gestalt psychologist Wolfgang Köhler’s theory of perception as set out in his Gestalt Psychology (1929). I argue that much of the existing literature on the Wittgenstein-Köhler relation distorts Köhler’s ideas and thus also Wittgenstein’s engagement with Köhler’s ideas. This double distortion underrates Köhler’s insights, misconstrues Wittgenstein’s complaints against Köhler, and masks points of contact between the two concerning the nature and description of human perceptual experience. In my view, Wittgenstein sympathizes with Köhler’s call to reflect on basic psychological categories such as “experience”, his respect for the “naïve” experience of the layperson, his method of “rediscovering” pervasive features of experience that escape our notice, and his efforts to identify intellectual prejudices that stymie inquiry. But a warning emerges from Wittgenstein’s discussions of seeing and seeing aspects: It is especially difficult to command a clear view of 'seeing' and its interrelations with other everyday, psychological concepts. I argue that Wittgenstein’s far-reaching criticism of Köhler is that the latter's account of visual “organization” overextends an analogy between seeing and seeing aspects and pushes aside other justifiable comparisons, for example between seeing and thinking and seeing and imagining. A consequence of Wittgenstein's criticism is that Kohler falls short of his aim to depict faithfully naïve visual experience. Moreover, despite Kohler's commitment to battling prejudices, the latter's emphasis on similarities between seeing and seeing aspects to the exclusion of their differences is a form of intellectual prejudice. For Wittgenstein various comparisons are justifiable by appeal to the interrelations between ‘seeing’ and other psychological concepts. A perspicuous view of the concept 'seeing' involves steady appreciation of the multitude of justifiable, criss-crossing comparisons. So although Wittgenstein does not deny Köhler’s claim that organization is a feature of visual experience rather than thinking, he does not unqualifiedly endorse it either. We have conceptual grounds for various ways of speaking about our experiences of aspects.

<p>The primary visual cortex (V1) is a center in the visual pathway that receives the converging information and sends diverging information to multiple visual areas. It is essential for the normal functioning of the visual system. While processing the input from the outside world, it is also continually modified by the sensory experience. This thesis is dedicated to studying the plasticity in the visual cortex that is associated with experience and brain damage recovery. In this thesis, we discovered that the visual experience induces 5 Hz oscillations that recruit inhibition in V1, sharpening the feature selectivity. We have also demonstrated that gene therapy to convert astrocytes into neurons induces neuronal circuit plasticity and functional recovery in mouse V1 following ischemia.</p>

Στόχος: Ο υποδοχέας του γλουταμινικού οξέος ΝMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate), αποτελεί μόριο-κλειδί που διαμεσολαβεί πολλούς τύπους συναπτικής πλαστικότητας στο κεντρικό νευρικό σύστημα. Στο οπτικό σύστημα η πλαστικότητα ξεκινά στο επίπεδο του αμφιβληστοειδούς χιτώνα. Κατά την ανάπτυξη του αμφιβληστροειδούς οι υποδοχείς NMDA συμμετέχουν σε φαινόμενα πλαστικότητας εξαρτώμενα από την εμπειρία όπως ο λειτουργικός διαχωρισμός των ON και OFF μονοπατιών. Η ανάπτυξη και η οπτική αποστέρηση επηρεάζουν επίσης τις ηλεκτροφυσιολογικές ιδιότητες των υποδοχέων NMDA στον αμφιβληστροειδή του επίμυος καθώς και την έκφραση των υπομονάδων του NR1 και NR2. Η βασική υπομονάδα NR1 υφίσταται εναλλακτικό μάτισμα με αποτέλεσμα να εμφανίζεται σε οκτώ διαφορετικές ισομορφές που προσδίδουν μοριακή ποικιλότητα στον υποδοχέα. Το ερώτημα που ετέθη ήταν εάν η έκφραση των ισομορφών της υπομονάδας NR1 ρυθμίζεται κατά την ανάπτυξη του αμφιβληστροειδούς χιτώνα του επίμυος και εάν μεταβάλλεται από την οπτική εμπειρία. Μέθοδος: Χρησιμοποιήθηκαν αμφιβληστροειδείς επίμυων (Wistar) που μεγάλωσαν είτε σε φυσιολογικό ημερήσιο κύκλο 12 ώρες φως/12 ώρες σκοτάδι [normal-reared (NR)], είτε σε διαρκές σκοτάδι [dark-reared (DR)] από την 9η έως την 60η ημέρα μετά τη γέννηση. Η μελέτη της έκφρασης των ισομορφών του αμινοτελικού (NR1a, NR1b) και του καρβοξυτελικού (NR1-1, NR1-2, NR1-3, NR1-4) άκρου της υπομονάδας NR1 έγινε με τη μέθοδο της real-time PCR. Αποτελέσματα: Το αναπτυξιακό προφίλ όλων των ισομορφών εμφάνισε διαφορετική αύξηση κατά τη διάρκεια της δεύτερης και τρίτης εβδομάδας, με μέγιστη έκφραση στο τέλος της τρίτης εβδομάδας. Μεταξύ των ισομορφών του αμινοτελικού άκρου, η NR1b εκφραζόταν σταθερά σε υψηλότερα επίπεδα σε σχέση με την NR1a, ενώ μεταξύ των ισομορφών του καρβοξυτελικού άκρου, η NR1-2 εκφραζόταν σε υψηλότερα επίπεδα από την NR1-4, ενώ τόσο η NR1-1 όσο και η NR1-3 εκφράζονταν σε χαμηλά επίπεδα. Η ανάπτυξη στο σκοτάδι μείωσε την έκφραση όλων των ισομορφών σε πολλά αναπτυξιακά στάδια και στο ενήλικο ζώο. Σημαντική αλληλεπίδραση μεταξύ ηλικίας και οπτικής εμπειρίας προέκυψε για τις ισομορφές NR1a, NR1-2 και NR1-4. Συμπεράσματα: Η έκφραση όλων των ισομορφών της υπομονάδας NR1 μεταβάλλεται κατά την ανάπτυξη του αμφιβληστροειδούς του επίμυος, ενώ ορισμένες (NR1a, NR1-2 and NR1-4) ρυθμίζονται τόσο από την ηλικία όσο και από την οπτική εμπειρία. Τέτοιες μεταβολές μπορεί να παίζουν σημαντικό ρόλο σε φαινόμενα πλαστικότητας που λαμβάνουν χώρα στον αμφιβληστροειδή χιτώνα. / Purpose: The N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) type of glutamate ionotropic receptor is a key molecule mediating plasticity related processes in the central nervous system. Visual system plasticity begins in the retina. During postnatal retinal development NMDA receptor has been shown to be involved in experience dependent plasticity such as the functional segregation of ON and OFF pathways. Development and visual deprivation have been found to affect the kinetics of NMDA receptor in rat retina and the expression of its main subunits NR1 and NR2. The NR1 fundamental subunit of NMDA receptor exists in eight distinct splice isoforms. Knowing that alternative splicing of the NR1 subunit offers a further molecular diversity to the receptor, we have addressed the question of whether the alternative splicing of NR1 subunit of the NMDA receptor is regulated during postnatal retinal development and whether this regulation is altered by visual experience. Methods: Retinas were dissected from eyes of Wistar rats raised either in normal 12-hour light/12-hour dark cycle [normal-reared (NR)], or in complete darkness [dark-reared (DR)] at postnatal days 9 to 60. Real-time PCR was performed in order to assess the mRNA expression of NR1 isoforms using oligonucleotide primers specific for N- terminal (NR1a, NR1b) and C-terminal splice variants (NR1-1, NR1-2, NR1-3, NR1-4). Results: The developmental profiles of mRNA expression levels of both N- and C-terminal NR1 isoforms showed differential increases during the second and third postnatal weeks, while their expression peaked at the end of the third week. Among N-terminal isoforms NR1b was constantly expressed at higher levels compared to NR1a and among the C-terminal isoforms, NR1-2 was expressed at higher levels than NR1-4, while both NR1-1 and NR1-3 were expressed at low levels. Dark-rearing led to reductions in both N- and C-terminal NR1 variants in several developmental ages and in adult retina. A significant age and experience interaction was observed at NR1a N-terminal isoform, and at the most abundant C-terminal isoforms NR1-2 and NR1-4. Conclusions: Our results have demonstrated that all NR1 splice isoforms are developmentally regulated in rat retina and some of them (NR1a, NR1-2 and NR1-4) are also bidirectionally regulated by age and visual experience. Such changes may play an important role in the plastic and activity-dependent events taking place in retina.

La question du rôle de l’expérience et de l’imagerie visuelle dans la perception et l’identification haptique d’images aux traits en relief par des individus aveugles et voyants constitue la question de recherche de cette thèse. La thèse présente quatre études expérimentales qui portent sur la perception d’images tactiles non figuratives (des patterns de lignes simples) et figuratives (visages expressifs, objets communs). Les résultats montrent que 1-Des individus aveugles peuvent reconnaitre des patterns simples avec un niveau de performance comparable à celui des individus voyants. 2- La stratégie que les personnes aveugles utilisent pour répondre à cette tâche dépend de leur proportion de temps de vie sans expérience visuelle. 3-Il n’y a pas plus de différence de performance entre individus aveugles de naissance et voyants avec des images figuratives. 4-Des individus forts en imagerie visuospatiale sont plus performants que des faibles imageurs pour identifier des images tactiles d’objets communs. En conclusion, la perception haptique des images tactiles, figuratives ou non, s’avère globalement possible sans le recours de l’expérience visuelle ou de l’imagerie visuelle. Le type d’imagerie mentale impliqué dans la compréhension des images tactiles dépend des individus (statut visuel, expérience visuelle, aptitude en imagerie visuospatiale). Des perspectives sur le contrôle de la complexité des images et l’analyse des mouvements d’exploration par une technologie innovante sont proposées. / The issue of the role of visual experience and imagery in the haptic perception of raised-line pictures by blind and sighted people is addressed by the present research. The thesis presents four experimental studies focusing on the perception of non figurative (simple line patterns) and figurative (expressive faces, common objects) tactile pictures. Results show that 1- Blind people can recognize simple patterns with the same accuracy level than sighted people. 2- Strategies used by blind people depend on their lifetime proportion without of visual experience. 3- There is no difference in performance between congenitally blind and sighted with figurative pictures perception. 4- Individuals with high visuospatial skills are more accurate than low imagers in identifying tactile pictures of common objects. In conclusion, haptic perception of tactile pictures, whether figurative or not, seems to be possible without recourse to visual experience or imagery. Our results suggest that the nature of mental imagery used in tactile picture comprehension tasks is subject-dependent (visual status, visual experience, visual imagery capacities). Perspectives regarding how to control for picture complexity control and how to analyze exploratory movements using an innovative technology are set up.

史考特‧費茲傑羅(F. Scott Fitzgerald)的小說《大亨小傳》為一深刻反映二十世紀美國文化的作品之一，書中描述主人翁蓋茲比如何在現實中追求不可及的夢想直至夢想幻滅的過程。在現實的不可抗逆下，蓋茲比以各式物質展演將不可見慾望的化為清晰的圖像。 本論文將透過廣告及攝影概念的引用，探討圖像與觀者的連結如何創造出一個既不屬於現實也不屬於幻象的虛擬現實，並論述蓋茲比如何運用觀者的觀看經驗為自身建立起一可被認同的身份，並且以這樣的策略開展小說中關於視覺與想像的辯證。 第一章略述《大亨小傳》的梗概、介紹其相關評論與說明本論文理論架構。第二章將藉由對二十世紀初媒體發展回顧重新定義「可見」的概念；第三章將詳述費茲傑羅與其作品與名流文化及媒體的密切性，及媒體文化對作者生活及作品的影響。第四章檢視書中敘事者尼克視覺化的觀察方式，進而分析其虛擬凝視(Virtual Gaze)如何打破生理視覺的侷限進而發展出一結合主體感觀經驗與客觀現實的感知方式。第五章重新討論小說中現實與幻象的矛盾，並點出「虛擬」將翻轉對現實的固有認知，並且成就更多可能性。 / F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby has been regarded as one of the most brilliant literary works that captures the essence of the roaring twenties. In the novel, Fitzgerald takes readers into a full picture of the life of Gatsby, unfolding the life of the glamour in a new world material without being real and the conflicts between social classes. Writing against the lucid narrative strategy, Fitzgerald completes The Great Gatsby with impressive languages, imagery and symbols. The present thesis would like to adopt theories of advertising and photography to examine how the order of presentation and observation is converted at the time when visual perception is inevitably intertwined with subjective imagination. In addition, the present thesis also aims to shed light on the concept of virtual gaze as well as the notion of identity by taking vision from the field of the visible into the field of the virtual. Chapter one begins with the introduction of The Great Gatsby and the methodology used in the present thesis. Chapter two includes literature reviews concerning the issue of seeing and Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Chapter three focuses on reviewing the presentation of images used in the mass media and on building the interrelationship among Fitzgerald’s life and the notion of “visibility.” Chapter four pays attention to the concept of “virtual gaze” and its capability to break the boundary between physical eyesight and imagination. Chapter five reconsiders the ambiguity of reality associated with contradictory vision and further validates the value of “virtual gaze.

Ein positives Nutzungserlebnis (engl. User Experience) ist einer der Schlüsselaspekte erfolgreicher Produkte und damit auch eine der Grundlagen für den wirtschaftlichen Erfolg eines Unternehmens. Ergonomische Bedienbarkeit und ansprechende Gestaltung des Produkts haben hierauf einen starken Einfluss (Schröppel & Wartzack, 2018). Entwickler und Designer versuchen deshalb, dieses Erlebnis bereits in einer möglichst frühen Phase des Produktentwicklungsprozesses zu erfassen und zu bewerten. Ein in der Automobilbranche erfolgreich eingesetztes Werkzeug zur Bewertung des Nutzungserlebnisses ist der Prototypenbau. Der Einsatz von solchen prototypischen Realaufbauten ist allerdings mit einem hohen finanziellen und vor allem mit einem hohen zeitlichen Aufwand verbunden. Deshalb werden diese meistens erst relativ spät im Produktentwicklungsprozess verwendet. Im Sinne des „Frontloadings“ wäre es vielmehr wünschenswert und sinnvoll, früh zur Verfügung stehende, digitale Modelle für die Bewertung des Nutzererlebnisses zu verwenden. Damit könnten bereits in einer frühen Phase des Produktentwicklungsprozesses Erkenntnisse über das Nutzungserlebnis unterschiedlicher Konzepte in die Entwicklung des Produkts einfließen. [... aus Punkt 1]

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Made available in DSpace on 2018-06-27T19:13:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertacao_FINAL_SALETE.pdf.jpg: 3381 bytes, checksum: 21cdccf296f128d8658533bbd7ad7acd (MD5) Dissertacao_FINAL_SALETE.pdf: 819735 bytes, checksum: aaaa21f6b1a6c62288e21696c8a1dbaf (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-06-28 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This study refers to an empiric research of descriptive qualitative characteristic, which involved the elaboration, conduction and analysis of a Physics teaching proposition for the deaf, centered on visual experience. The teaching proposition combines a Hydrostatics activity sequence, at the introductory level, with the experimentation strategies, learning groups and bilingual communication assisted by an interpreter, in an education perspective that aims at knowledge inclusion. The study aimed to try to comprehend how this proposition is able to assist the deaf in the development of relevant physical concepts, as well as the development of other important subject matters for the integral growth of the human being, having the reference of culture and experience of this community s members. The proposition was elaborated and conducted, centered on visual experience, in a constructivism pedagogical conception of human development, founded on the Vygostky social-historic theory and the meaningful learning theory of Ausubel. Young and adult deaf, who are members of Associação de Pais e Amigos dos Surdos (APAS), of the city of Passo Fundo, RS, have taken part of this research. The participants were assisted at the workshop modality offered by APAS. As data collection instruments, written entries on activity books of the young and adult deaf, the teacher s diary, questionnaires and shootings of the classroom episodes were used. The results analyses were done by using the content analysis method. For the analyses, the young and adult deaf were categorized in groups, namely, Group 1, composed by three students, who attended inclusive classes during their educational journey, without the assistance of an interpreter, and Group 2, composed by two students, who have had a mix of inclusive classes with the assistance of interpreters and classes attended by deaf students only, with teachers who communicated through Brazilian Sign Language. The results of this work indicate that it is possible to include young and adult deaf to knowledge with the use of teaching methods that privilege sight, in which the students demonstrated the possibility of development of conceptual subject matters with the formulation of Hydrostatics introductory concepts, they also demonstrated attitudinal subject matters such as communication, self-esteem, socialization, involvement, interest and curiosity to learn, and proceedings subject matters such as adequate handling of experimental material, measuring executions, observations, regularities examinations, hypothesis confirmation and comparison. As one of the results of this work, a didactical modulus containing the teaching-learning activity sequence used for this study was elaborated and may be used by other teachers as a support to the teaching of the deaf. / Este estudo trata de uma pesquisa empírica de cunho qualitativo descritivo, que envolveu a elaboração, condução e análise de uma proposta de ensino de Física para surdos, centrada na experiência visual. A proposta de ensino combina uma seqüência de atividades de Hidrostática, ao nível introdutório, com as estratégias de experimentação, grupos de aprendizagem e comunicação bilíngüe assistida por uma intérprete, em uma perspectiva de educação que visa à inclusão ao conhecimento. O estudo teve como objetivo compreender como essa proposta pode auxiliar aos surdos no desenvolvimento de conceitos físicos relevantes, bem como no desenvolvimento de outros conteúdos importantes ao crescimento integral do ser humano, tendo-se como referência a cultura e a vivência de membros dessa comunidade. A proposta foi elaborada e conduzida centrada na experiência visual, em uma concepção pedagógica construtivista de desenvolvimento humano, fundamentada na teoria sócio-histórica de Vygotsky e na teoria da aprendizagem significativa de Ausubel. Participaram desta pesquisa jovens e adultos surdos integrantes da Associação de Pais e Amigos dos Surdos (APAS), da cidade de Passo Fundo, RS. Os participantes foram atendidos na modalidade de oficina oferecida pela APAS. Como instrumentos de coleta de dados foram utilizados registros escritos dos jovens e adultos surdos em cadernos de atividades, diário de campo do professor, questionários e imagens vídeo filmadas dos episódios da sala de aula. As análises dos resultados foram feitas utilizando-se o método de análise de conteúdo. Para as análises, os jovens e adultos foram categorizados em grupos, a saber: Grupo 1, composto de três alunos, os quais durante sua trajetória educacional freqüentaram classes inclusivas, sem acompanhamento de intérprete, e o Grupo 2, formado por dois alunos que tiveram sua vida educacional mesclada por classes inclusivas com acompanhamento de intérprete e em classe somente freqüentada por alunos surdos, com professores que utilizavam LIBRAS. Os resultados deste trabalho indicam que é possível incluir jovens e adultos surdos ao conhecimento com a utilização de métodos de ensino que privilegiem a experiência visual. Observou-se que os alunos demonstraram a possibilidade de desenvolvimento de conteúdos conceituais com a formulação de conceitos introdutórios da Hidrostática. Demonstraram também conteúdos atitudinais, como: comunicação, auto-estima, socialização, envolvimento, interesse e curiosidade em aprender; e conteúdos procedimentais, como: manuseio adequado do material experimental, realização de medições, observações, verificação de regularidades, comparação e confirmação de hipóteses. Como um dos resultados deste trabalho, foi elaborado um módulo didático contendo a seqüência de atividades de ensino-aprendizagem utilizada para este estudo, o qual poderá ser utilizado por outros professores como apoio ao ensino de surdos.

<p>My thesis revolves around neuronal circuit dynamics in health and disease. The first part of the thesis characterized cross-regional synchrony within the visual cortical network following visual perceptual experience in healthy mice. This work for the first time described inter-areal 4-8 Hz superficial layer LFP synchrony across mouse visual cortical regions persisting beyond visual stimulation time window, and revealed that the synchrony was expressed specifically between V1 and the higher-order visual area (HVA) with functional preference matching the entrained spatial frequency (SF) and temporal frequency (TF) content, in mice. The discovery of visual familiarity induced inter-areal 4-8 Hz synchrony extends the previous discovery of the 4-8 Hz oscillation in V1 after visual experience from our lab (Kissinger et al., 2018; Kissinger et al., 2020; Gao et al., 2021), and provided the first pivotal evidence supporting the role of 4-8 Hz oscillation in mediating cross-regional communication. Such 4-8 Hz visual cortical network synchrony has been mostly reported in primate studies in contexts of visual attention and working memory (Liebe et al., 2012; Spyropoulos et al., 2018), while our study extended the visual cortical network synchrony research scope to mouse models and in a new context of visual familiarity. The work is a key step for starting cortical network studies in mice, and for starting predictive coding theory study in the context of oscillations in mouse cortical network in the future. Additionally, unit spiking was more strongly modulated by 4-8 Hz oscillations in V1 and HVAs after visual experience. The visually-locked responsive units in V1 and HVAs exihibted either increased or decreased inter-areal spiking synchrony, while most post-stimulus responsive units in V1 and HVA exhibited higher spiking synchrony. </p> <p>The other parts of my dissertation looked at V1 activity in disease and following a novel CNS therapy. One project looked at recovery of visually evoked response in mouse V1 after ischemia through NeuroD1 mediated astrocyte-to-neuron conversion, where we characterized the formation of cortical laminated structure from the converted neurons, longitudinal recovery of visually evoked responses of unit populations in V1, and units’ selective responses to orientations. Another project looked at altered visual cortical activity in an Auxilin knockout mouse model, which demonstrated overall reduced visually evoked responses, less selective responses to orientations, impaired visual adaptive responses and mismatch responses, as well as slower visual experience induced oscillations. These projects utilized the high-density silicon probe recording technique to 1) characterize visual cortical function recovery following a therapy, which provided evidence for its high efficacy for recovering physiological functions, and to 2) phenotype visual cortical functional impairments in a mouse disease model, which provided more basic understanding in visual cortical physiology of Auxilin related disease.</p> <p>In sum, my dissertation work took advantage of the high-density silicon probe recording technique to probe neuronal circuits in health and disease. The discovery of visual experience induced inter-areal 4-8 Hz synchrony paves the way for studying 4-8 Hz activity in relation to stream-dependent visual processing and predictive coding in health and disease.</p>