Course Outline

Date

Topic

Reading

Introduction

January 28
  Introduction to neuroscience Chapter 1
30
SG Approaches to studying brain and behavior Chapter 2
February 1
ST Outline of neuroanatomy Chapter 7 (168-180; 193-199; 205-235); Chapter 15 (490-497)

Development of the nervous system

4

SG

Neurogenesis, migration Chap. 7 (178-195); 23 (690-8)
5
Axon pathfinding; cell death Chapter 23 (698-708)
8

Role of neural activity in development

Sheetz AJ, Williams RW, and Dubin MW Severity of ganglion cell death during early postnatal development is modulated by both neuronal activity and binocular competition. Visual Neuroscience 12 (1995) 605-610.

Electrical signalling

11
  Membranes and membrane potentials Chapter 3
13
Action potential Chapter 4
15

Conductance mechanisms

Stringer JL. Regulation of extracellular potassium in the developing hippocampus. Developmental Brain Research 110 (1998) 97‑103.

Synaptic transmission

18
  Chemical and electrical transmission Chapter 5 (102-122)
20
Postsynaptic potentials; neural integration Chapter 5 (122-131)
21/22
Exam 1
25
ST Neurotransmitter systems Chapter 6; Chapter 15 (498-507)
27
Castner SA, Xiao L, Becker JB. Sex differences in striatal dopamine: in vivo microdialysis and behavioral studies. Brain Research 610 (1993) 127-134.
29
Morgan DG et al. Divergent changes in D-1 and D-2 dopamine binding sites in human brain during aging. Neurobiology of Aging 8 (1987) 95-201.

Sensory Neuroscience

March 3
 SG Vision: transduction; receptive fields Chapter 9 (288-306)
5
Visual information processing Chapter 10 (310-329)
7

Visual cortex Chapter 10 (324-348)

Ferster D, Chung S, Wheat H. Orientation selectivity of thalamic input to simple cells of cat visual cortex. Nature. 380 (1996) 249‑52.

10
  Visual plasticity; critical periods Chapter 23 (708-716)
12
  Somatosensory system Chapter 12 (388-408)
14
 

Pain Chapter 12 (408-421)

Eisenberger NI, Lieberman MD, Williams KD. Does rejection hurt? An FMRI study of social exclusion. Science. 302 (2003) 290‑292.

[Spring break]

24
ST

Chemoreception Chapter 8

Curtis KS, Contreras RJ. Sex differences in electrophysiological and behavioral responses to NaCl taste. Behavioral Neuroscience 120 (2006) 917-924.

26
Auditory system Chapter 11 (344-375)
28

Auditory system II

Wu H.-C. et al. Influence of auditory deprivation upon the tonotopic organization in the inferior colliculus: a Fos immunocytochemical study in the rat.

Eur. J. Neuroscience 17 (2003) 2540-2552

Sensorimotor control systems

31
  Spinal mechanisms Chapter 13
April 2
 

Brain mechanisms Chapter 14

Perese DA, Ulman J, Viola J, Ewing SE, Bankiewicz KS. A 6-hydroxy-dopamine-induced selective parkinsonian rat model. Brain Research 494 (1989) 285-293.

3/4
  Exam 2

Neural basis of behavioral plasticity

7
SG Human and animal memory Chapter 24
9
Cellular mechanisms of neural plasticity Chapter 23 (716-722); Chap. 25
11

Clem RL, Tansu C, Barth AL Ongoing in vivo experience triggers synaptic metaplasticity in the neocortex. Science 319 (2008) 101-104.

Neuroendocrine and motivational systems

14
ST Endocrine systems Chapter 15 (482-490);Chapter 17
16
Bado C, Rissman EF. Androgen receptor is essential for sexual differentiation of responses to olfactory cues in mice. Eur. J. Neuroscience 25 (2007), 2182-2190.
18
JPB Feeding behavior Chapter 16 (510-527)
 
21
ST Stress I Chapter 18 (573-582); Ch 22 (668-670)
23

Stress II

Yaka R et al. Effect of varied gestational stress on acquisition of spatial memory, hippocampal LTP and synaptic proteins in juvenile male rats.

Behavioural Brain Res. 179 (2007) 126-132

24/25
  Exam 3

Diseases of the nervous system

28
 

Addiction Chap.16 (504-507; 522-527)

Box 16.5 p. 526

Cruz FC, Marin MT, Planeta CS. The reinstatement of amphetamine-induced place preference is long-lasting and related to decreased expression of AMPA receptors in the nucleus accumbens. Neuroscience 151 (2008) 313-319

30
 

Depression Chapter 22 (673-679)

Hattori, S., et al. Enriched environments influence depression-related behavior in adult mice and the survival of newborn cells in their hippocampi.

Behavioural Brain Res. 180 (2007) 69-76

May 2
 

The Emerging Role of Bioenergetic Strategies in Treating Neurological Disorders: Huntingtons Disease

Guest Lecture: Dr. Robert Ferrante Box 14.3 p. 468

5
 

Schizophrenia Chapter 22 (679-685)

 

Flagstad P, Glenthoj BY, Didriksen M. Cognitive deficits caused by late gestational disruption of neurogenesis in rats: a preclinical model of schizophrenia. Neuropsychopharmacology 30 (2005) 250-260.

7
SG

Alzheimer disease Box 2.3 p. 36-37

 

Verret L, Jankowsky JL, Xu GM, Borchelt DR, Rampon C. Alzheimer's-type amyloidosis in transgenic mice impairs survival of newborn neurons derived from adult hippocampal neurogenesis. Journal of Neuroscience 27 (2007) 6771-80

9
  Review /catchup session [+ Neuroscience Senior Thesis presentations]
  Final exam: 3-day take home, due during finals period