Feb 5, 2026

Visual and auditory perception - How we see and hear the external world

In this course, we will explore the mechanisms of sensory information processing and the distinctive features of vision and hearing from the perspective of cognitive neuroscience. Light from the external world enters the eyes and becomes a mental experience of “seeing,” and sound entering the ears becomes the experience of hearing. These processes involve converting physical stimuli into neural activity in the brain. The course features video materials such as a dissection experiment using a pig’s eyeball, EEG recordings with human participants, and a field experiment demonstrating the mosquito sound phenomenon. Each sensory organ will also be explained three-dimensionally using 3D computer graphics. Please note: The lecture includes footage of a pig’s eyeball dissection, which may be uncomfortable for some viewers.

May 10, 2023

Four Facets of Contemporary Japanese Architecture: Humans

This is the fourth course in the “Four Facets of Contemporary Japanese Architecture” series, which focuses on the fourth facet: humans. Economic miracle, environmental problems, bubble economy and its collapse, information technology and globalization, earthquakes, population decline, pandemic... The nearly 60 years between the two Tokyo Olympics, 1964 and 2021, was a turbulent time for humans in Japan. During this period, how has architecture changed? And what happened to humans that architecture was supposed to have supported? This course on “Humans” will review the works of those architects who have attempted to conceptualize humans through their architecture and examine the changes over the last half century as well as the issues for the future. Hiroshi Hara, Toyo Ito, Osamu Ishiyama, Kengo Kuma, Satoko Shinohara, and Sou Fujimoto visit their buildings to discuss the ideas behind their respective works.

KUMA Kengo (University Professor, Office of University Professor, The University of Tokyo) OBUCHI Yusuke (Associate Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo)

Oct 10, 2015

Visualizing Postwar Tokyo, Part 2

The history of postwar Tokyo reveals an essential feature of the modern city, i.e. the city as a place of visualities. In postwar Tokyo, countless gazes fell upon others; gazes from and upon Americans and the Emperor, gazes going up skyscrapers or rushing aggressively through the cityscape, and gazes twining and wriggling among classes, genders, and ethnic groups in downtown Tokyo. In Part 2, we will focus on the geopolitics of these gazes in modern Tokyo. What kinds of gazes fell upon the war orphans, the poor, and the marginalized groups in Tokyo? How did students themselves, who represented the vast accumulation of knowledge in Tokyo, perform in front of these gazes? Moreover, how did cinema or television shows, as media for these gazes, implicate the whole city? In answering these questions, we will identify the geopolitics historically involved in the practice of “visualizing postwar Tokyo.”

YOSHIMI Shunya (Professor, Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, The University of Tokyo)

Nov 18, 2015

Welcome to Game Theory

This course provides a brief introduction to game theory. Our main goal is to understand the basic ideas behind the key concepts in game theory, such as equilibrium, rationality, and cooperation. The course uses very little mathematics, and it is ideal for those who are looking for a conceptual introduction to game theory. Business competition, political campaigns, the struggle for existence by animals and plants, and so on, can all be regarded as a kind of “game,” in which individuals try to do their best against others. Game theory provides a general framework to describe and analyze how individuals behave in such “strategic” situations. This course focuses on the key concepts in game theory, and attempts to outline the informal basic ideas that are often hidden behind mathematical definitions. Game theory has been applied to a number of disciplines, including economics, political science, psychology, sociology, biology, and computer science. Therefore, a warm welcome is extended to audiences from all fields who are interested in what game theory is all about.