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2022-2023 Timetable and calendar
Courses
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Program, courses and calendar 2023 - 2024
2022-2023 Timetable and calendar
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Program, courses and calendar 2021 - 2022
2021-2022 Timetable and calendar
Courses
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Recrutement sur dossier : Concours normalien étudiant
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2023-2024 FIP/ICFP seminar Program
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Program, courses and calendar Master ICFP 1st year (2023-2024)
2023-2024 Calendar and timetable
Courses
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Program, courses and calendar Master ICFP 1st year (2022-2023)
2022-2023 Calendar and timetable
Courses
Internships
Program, courses and calendar Master ICFP 2nd year 2023-2024
First Semester
Second Semester
"Physics Now" Seminars 2019/2020
"Physics Now" Seminars 2020/2021
"Physics Now" Seminars 2021/2022
"Physics Now" Seminars 2023/2024
"Physics Now" Seminars 2022/2023
Internships
2023 2024 calendar
Program, courses and calendar Master ICFP 2nd year 2022-2023
First Semester
Second Semester
"Physics Now" Seminars 2019/2020
"Physics Now" Seminars 2020/2021
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2022 2023 calendar
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Erreur ( A supprimer)
Program, courses and calendar Master ICFP 1st year (2021-2022)
Program, courses and calendar Master ICFP 1st year (2021-2022)
Program, courses and calendar Master ICFP 2nd year 2021-2022
Program, courses and calendar Master ICFP 2nd year 2020-2021
Program, courses and calendar Master ICFP 2nd year 2019-2020
Archives 2015-2016
Archives 2016-2017
Archives 2017-2018
Archives 2018-2019
Archives 2019-2020
Archives 2020-2021
Program, courses and calendar 2022 - 2023
2022-2023 Timetable and calendar
Courses
Internships
Program, courses and calendar 2023 - 2024
2022-2023 Timetable and calendar
Courses
Internships
Program, courses and calendar 2021 - 2022
2021-2022 Timetable and calendar
Courses
Internships
Admissions
Recrutement sur concours
Recrutement sur dossier : Concours normalien étudiant
Contacts
Seminars
Seminars
2023-2024 FIP/ICFP seminar Program
Undergraduate program Intranet
Archives
Archives 2015-2016
Archives 2016-2017
Archives 2017-2018
Archives 2018-2019
Archives 2019-2020
Archives 2020-2021
Why choose this program?
Program, courses and calendar Master ICFP 1st year (2023-2024)
2023-2024 Calendar and timetable
Courses
Internships
Program, courses and calendar Master ICFP 1st year (2022-2023)
2022-2023 Calendar and timetable
Courses
Internships
Program, courses and calendar Master ICFP 2nd year 2023-2024
First Semester
Second Semester
"Physics Now" Seminars 2019/2020
"Physics Now" Seminars 2020/2021
"Physics Now" Seminars 2021/2022
"Physics Now" Seminars 2023/2024
"Physics Now" Seminars 2022/2023
Internships
2023 2024 calendar
Program, courses and calendar Master ICFP 2nd year 2022-2023
First Semester
Second Semester
"Physics Now" Seminars 2019/2020
"Physics Now" Seminars 2020/2021
"Physics Now" Seminars 2021/2022
"Physics Now" Seminars 2022/2023
Internships
2022 2023 calendar
Admission and Language Requirements
How to apply
Information for students
Information for International Students
Fees and Scholarships
Careers
Master Intranet
Archives
Erreur ( A supprimer)
Program, courses and calendar Master ICFP 1st year (2021-2022)
Program, courses and calendar Master ICFP 1st year (2021-2022)
Program, courses and calendar Master ICFP 2nd year 2021-2022
Program, courses and calendar Master ICFP 2nd year 2020-2021
Program, courses and calendar Master ICFP 2nd year 2019-2020
Archives 2015-2016
Archives 2016-2017
Archives 2017-2018
Archives 2018-2019
Archives 2019-2020
Archives 2020-2021
Next student seminar :
Access to the program
Here you can find information about your internships:
Experimental Internship - Undergraduate program
Master ICFP first year Internship
News : ICFP Research seminars
November 14 - 18, 2022 :
All information about the program
Contact us - Student support and Graduate School office :
Tél : 01 44 32 35 60
enseignement@phys.ens.fr
Next student seminar :
Access to the program
Here you can find information about your internships:
Experimental Internship - Undergraduate program
Master ICFP first year Internship
News : ICFP Research seminars
November 14 - 18, 2022 :
All information about the program
Contact us - Student support and Graduate School office :
Tél : 01 44 32 35 60
enseignement@phys.ens.fr
Faculty : Thierry Mora, Pascal Martin
Tutor :
ECTS credits : 3
Language of instruction :
Description :
Sensory systems strike us by their exquisite sensitivity, which is often close to the limit set by physics. Our eyes are sensitive to single photons. Likewise, our ears can detect sound-evoked vibrations that can be smaller than the thermal motion of the ear’s inner structures. In addition, our senses also show sharp selectivity. We can indeed visualize the position of objects with a higher precision than the distance between retinal photoreceptors, and tell the difference between sounds that differ only by 0.02% in frequency. Finally, the dynamical range of perception can be enormous, spanning up to 12 orders of magnitude of sound intensities in the case of hearing. These characteristics impose stringent physical constraints on transduction, filtering, noise rejection, and amplification of the input by receptor sensory cells of the body.
In this course, we will focus on the particular examples of vision and hearing to explore the physical mechanisms underlying the extraordinary performances of our senses. We will explore the various scales and stages of processing of sensory stimuli, from the cochlea and its cellular microphones in hearing, and from photo-receptors in vision, to basic neural processing. We will see that familiar concepts from non-linear dynamics and statistical mechanics (Hopf bifurcations, resonance, critical transitions,…) can shed light on the mechanisms of active amplification, compression, and efficient representation of sensory signals. In return, we will identify general physical principles of sensory detection.
Next student seminar :
Access to the program
Here you can find information about your internships:
Experimental Internship - Undergraduate program
Master ICFP first year Internship
News : ICFP Research seminars
November 14 - 18, 2022 :
All information about the program
Contact us - Student support and Graduate School office :
Tél : 01 44 32 35 60
enseignement@phys.ens.fr
RECRUITMENT DIRECT ACCESS
The Department of Physics