Cellular physiology of neurons and excitable cells; molecular neurobiology and development. Topics include: action potential generation; synaptic transmission; molecular and physiological studies of ion channels; second messengers; simple neural circuits; synaptic plasticity; learning and memory; and neural development.

Cellular physiology of neurons and excitable cells; molecular neurobiology and development. Topics include: action potential generation; synaptic transmission; molecular and physiological studies of ion channels; second messengers; simple neural circuits; synaptic plasticity; learning and memory; and neural development.

Cellular physiology of neurons and excitable cells; molecular neurobiology and development. Topics include: action potential generation; synaptic transmission; molecular and physiological studies of ion channels; second messengers; simple neural circuits; synaptic plasticity; learning and memory; and neural development.

Cellular physiology of neurons and excitable cells; molecular neurobiology and development. Topics include: action potential generation; synaptic transmission; molecular and physiological studies of ion channels; second messengers; simple neural circuits; synaptic plasticity; learning and memory; and neural development.

What motivates us to eat? Why do many of us eat even in the absence of hunger? How do our food preferences and habits form? And how can eating transition from regulated to dysregulated? This seminar class investigates these questions and many others, with a focus on how our brains regulate food intake. We will explore the neuroscience behind eating, as well as the genetic, psychological, social, cultural, and societal influences that shape our behavior. Through readings, assignments, and class discussions, we will navigate the biological forces behind normal eating, as well as how eating becomes disordered in diseases like obesity and eating disorders. Through this course, students will learn about behavioral neuroscience research from human and animal studies and will develop critical thinking, reading, and writing skills. There are no prerequisites except for a love of food.

This course will develop theoretical and computational approaches to structural and functional organization in the brain. The course will cover: (i) the basic biophysics of neural responses, (ii) neural coding and decoding with an emphasis on sensory systems, (iii) approaches to the study of networks of neurons, (iv) models of adaptation, learning and memory, (v) models of decision making, and (vi) ideas that address why the brain is organized the way that it is. The course will be appropriate for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students. A knowledge of multi-variable calculus, linear algebra and differential equations is required (except by permission of the instructor). Prior exposure to neuroscience and/or Matlab programming will be helpful.

In this lab course, a small number of students meet once per week to discuss topics in synaptic physiology and to become proficient at sharp electrode techniques for intracellular recording, using isolated ganglia from the snail Heliosoma. The first part of each class will consist of discussion of weekly reading from the primary literature, with the remainder of the class devoted to hands-on experiments. After learning to record from and characterize single neurons, students will study synaptic transmission by stimulating incoming nerve trunks or by recording from pairs of interconnected neurons. As a midterm assignment, students will prepare and present a short research proposal using this model system, to be evaluated by the class. For the last half of the course, the class will work together on one or two of these proposals, meeting at the end of each class to pool our data, analyze the results and discuss their significance. Lab Fee: $100.

In this seminar course, we will deepen our understanding about excitability in the nervous system and in skeletal and cardiac muscle. A particular focus of the course will be the roles which calcium ions play as second messengers in nerve, muscle and synapse. We will study disease processes involving excitability and calcium handling, such as Long QT syndrome and hyperkalemic periodic paralysis. The later part of the course will have a journal club format, based on the reading and presentation of original papers, including papers about non-opioid analgesia and malignant hyperthermia. We will learn about the techniques used to study intracellular calcium and about how calcium is handled in nerve and muscle. Classical, physiological experiments will be interpreted in terms of modern molecular knowledge.

This course will familiarize students with advances in our understanding of the clinical features and pathogenesis of a wide range of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, prion diseases, Parkinson's disease and atypical parkinsonisms, neurodegenerative ataxias, motoneuron diseases, degenerative diseases with chorea, iron and copper disorders, and mitochondrial diseases. Students will analyze original research reports on a range of proposed pathological cellular processes that may represent steps in cell dealth pathways leading to neuron loss seen in these diseases. Significant emphasis will be placed on the fast-expanding fieldexploring genetic contributions to neurodegenerative disease, as identification of genetic mutations pathogenenic for familial neurodegenerative diseases has been a major driving force in neurodegenerative research and pointed researchers towards essential molecular process that may underlie these disorders. Strategies for therapeutic intervention in the management, prevention, and cure of neurodegenerative disease will be addressed.

This course focuses on the current state of our knowledge about the neurobiological basis of learning and memory. A combination of lectures and student seminars will explore the molecular and cellular basis of learning in invertebrates and vertebrates from a behavioral and neural perspective.