Course Description: Cellular and molecular bases of nervous system function and behavior.
Course Objectives: This course is designed to offer a broad overview of how the brain works at the cellular level. It will focus on the brain's specialized cells, neurons, and how they participate in brain function. The course will concentrate on the specific proteins involved with the function of neurons, and the unique role each protein plays in facilitating synaptic transmission. The course is also dedicated to promoting integrative thinking about the brain and several sessions are focused on ethical issues in neuroscience and how diseases of the brain impact us.
Students will understand:
Prerequisites: BMS 300 or BY 310
Format: 3 credits - 3 hours of lecture per week
Semesters Offered: Fall
Coordinator: K. Partin (coordinator), J. Walrond, S. Kinnamon, R. Whalen, G. Pickard, and S. Tobet
Text: Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain, 2nd ed. Bear, Connors, and Paradiso.
Course Outline:
| Week 1: | Perspectives on neuroscience, cell types in the brain, functions of nerve cell | |
| Week 2: | Introduction to electricity, membrane structure and potentials | |
| Week 3: | Action potential generation, action potential propagation, structure of voltage-gated ion channels | |
| Week 4: | Synapses and their structure, synaptic vesicle cycle | |
| Week 5: | Neurotransmitters | |
| Week 6: | Inhibitions and synaptic integration, modulation of synaptic function | |
| Week 7: | Sensory systems, G-protein coupled receptors | |
| Week 8: | Vision - retina, phototransduction, topics in neuroscience | |
| Week 9: | Vision - coding in the retina, chemical senses - smell and taste | |
| Week 10: | Auditory transduction, auditory coding, somatosensory - touch | |
| Week 11: | Somatosensory - proprioception, pain, topics in neuroscience | |
| Week 12: | CNS cell types | |
| Week 13: | Suprachiasmatic nucleus and clock cells, neuroendocrine cells, developmental neurobiology | |
| Week 14: | Developmental neurobiology, topics in neuroscience | |
| Week 15: | Developmental neurobiology, review |
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