Neurons, networks, and behavior
How does light energy falling on the back of our eye get
interpreted as a particular image of our friend or a painting or a
leaf? How does a cockroach escape imminent predation by a toad?
How does a slug remember that a recent poke wasnąt dangerous? How
do we remember? A rigorous consideration of general principles of
neural integration at the cellular, sensory, central, and motor
levels of organization will serve as the groundwork for an
examination of such questions of integration. Then we will apply
those principles to particular systems including: locust flight,
cockroach escape,the role of giant fibers in crayfish behavior,
memory and learning in invertebrates and vertebrates, and
vertebrate visual systems (from light transduction in the retina
through integration in the visual cortex). Students will read
appropriate primary literature (both classical and contemporary)
and conduct their own research projects.
Syllabus Spring 2012
Online Neuro
textbooks
Neuroscience
(Purves
et al)
Voltage
clamp
Patch clamp
Neuroscience
(University of Texas Medical School)
The Nervous system in action (University
of Nebraska Medical University)
Diffusion potential (Eion
)
Basis of resting membrane potential (Em(rest) )
Active and passive membrane responses
Ionic basis of action potential
Synaptic function
(difference between currents and potentials)-neuromuscular
junction (synapse) as example
Iion =gion |Em-Eion |
Illustrative systems we will study include:
Evolution of the nervous system:
Cnidarians and the evolutionary origin of the nervous system
(2009)
1)
cockroach escape
a) The Escape
Behavior of the Cockroach Periplaneta
americana I. Turning Response to Wind Puffs
(1978)
b)The
Escape Behavior of the Cockroach Periplaneta americana II. Detection of
Natural Predators by Air Displacement (1978)
c) Responses
of Giant Interneurons of the Cockroach Periplaneta americana to
Wind Puffs of Different Directions and Velocities
(1977)
d) Effect of
Static Load on Motor Behavior of the Cockroach Periplaneta americana
(2008)
e) Cockroaches
Keep Predators Guessing by Using Preferred Escape Trajectories
(2008)
f) Wasp
uses venom cocktail to manipulate the behavior of its
cockroach prey (2003)
Video1
Video2-a
more detailed explanation if you ignore the rampant
anthropomorphizing
g) A
Wasp Manipulates Neuronal Activity in the Sub-Esophageal
Ganglion to Decrease the Drive for Walking in Its Cockroach
Prey (2010)
2) locust flight
a) D. M. Wilson
(1961)-classic paper-locust flight motor
draw a putative network diagram of
the locust flight motor using the data from Wilson
locust flight handouts
Video-simulation
of locust flight-think about what the different colors mean
b) Central
control of locust flight (2006) sets Wilson's work in historical context
c) A
muscarinic cholinergic mechanism underlies activation of the
central pattern generator for locust flight (2008)
It will help you to make a table
of the different putative neurotransmitters, agonists, and
antagonists
From
Purves et al
3)
crayfish command fibers
a) Release
of coordinated behavior in crayfish by single neurons
(1966)-classic paper
b) Coordination
of Rhythmic Motor Activity by Gradients of Synaptic Strength
in a Neural Circuit That Couples Modular Neural Oscillators
(2009)
Review of motor commands: Fifty
years of CPGs: two neuroethological papers that shaped the
course of neuroscience (2010)
4)
memory and learning in molluscs-
Nova
video-learning and memory in Aplysia
Sensitization
in Aplysia-slide
show from Neurosciences
Aplysia handout
a) The Molecular Biology of Memory Storage: A Dialogue Between Genes and Synapses 2001
b) Learning
in Aplysia: looking
at synaptic plasticity from both sides 2003
c) Activity-Dependent
Presynaptic Facilitation and Hebbian LTP Are Both Required and
Interact during Classical Conditioning in Aplysia 2003
d) The Biology
of Memory: A Forty-Year Perspective - Kandel 2009
e) Habituation in Aplysia 2009
5)
memory and learning in mammals
a) Differing
presynaptic contributions to LTP and associative learning in
behaving mice 2009
b) Structural
plasticity and memory 2004
c) Effects
of enriched physical and social environments on motor
performance, associative learning, and hippocampal
neurogenesis in mice 2010
d) Synaptic
plasticity and addiction 2007
e) Transition
to Addiction Is Associated with a Persistent Impairment in
Synaptic Plasticity 2010 supplemental material
6)
visual systems
Purves et al
Anatomy of the eye
The formation of images on the retina
The retina
Phototransduction
Functional specialization of the rod
and cone systems
Anatomical distribution of rods and
cones
Cones and color vision
The Retinotopic Representation of the Visual Field (Figs. 12. 4 12. 5, 12. 6)
Visual Field Deficits (Figs. 12.7, 12.8)
The Columnar Organization of the Striate Cortex (Figs. 12.12, Box C, 12.13)
Parallel Streams of Information from Retina to Cortex (Fig. 12.14)
Active
flight increases the gain of visual motion processing in
Drosophila
7) Higher integrative CNS processes
A
brief history of human brain mapping 2008
Dysfunction
in the Neural Circuitry of Emotion Regulation‹A Possible
Prelude to Violence
Identifying
hallmarks of consciousness in non-mammalian species
Animal
consciousness: a synthetic approach
Neural
correlates of admiration and compassion
The
role of primordial emotions in the evolutionary origin of
consciousness
Social Cognition and the Evolution of Language: Constructing Cognitive Phylogenies (2010)
Identification of the Social
and Cognitive Processes Underlying Human Cumulative Culture
(2012) supplementary material
Desert ant
navigation: how miniature brains solve complex tasks (2003)
Image-matching
during ant navigation (2011) supplementary
material
Separate Processing of Texture and Form in the Ventral Stream:
Evidence from fMRI and
Visual Agnosia2010
Perception of
Face Parts and Face Configurations: An fMRI Study
The
neurology of consciousness: cognitive neuroscience and
neuropathology
By
Steven Laureys, Giulio Tononi GOOGLE BOOKS
Course
Requirements: see how to read and
facilitate (download this!)
1-attend all
classes and be well-prepared
2-read
assignments AND take notes
3-browse
current journals
4-in class
discussion (facilitate and participate and choose papers)
This is a discussion class. You are to talk to
each other during class.
5-research project
By midterm:
-things to consider during
proposal presentation
-research proposal with literature cited -due in class 4/6/12
-rubric for research proposal
evaluation
Final work:
presentation
poster (instructions)
paper in format of Journal of Comparative Physiology or Journal
of Experimental Biology (instructions)
rubric for final
report
Project ideas
Cool
papers for project ideas
Effects of aging on behavior and
leg kinematics during locomotion in two species of cockroach
The Neural Basis
of Dominance Hierarchy Formation in Crayfish
Coordinated Righting
Behaviour in Locusts
Use of bilateral
information to determine the walking direction during
orientation to a pheromone source in the silkmoth Bombyx mori
Intersegmental
Coordination: Influence of a Single Walking Leg on the
Neighboring Segments in the Stick Insect Walking System
D-amphetamine stimulates
unconditioned exploration/approach behaviors in crayfish:
Towards a conserved evolutionary function of ancestral drug
reward
Drug-sensitive
reward in crayfish: An invertebrate model system for the study
of SEEKING, reward, addiction, and withdrawal
Neuronal
Processing of Chemical Information in Crustaceans
Neuropsychology
of Learning and Memory in Teleost Fish
Learning,
memorizing and apparent forgetting of chemical cues from new
predators by Iberian green frog tadpoles
Correlates
of Sleep and Waking in Drosophila melanogaster
Foraging alters
resilience/vulnerability to sleep disruption and starvation in
Drosophila
The
Physiology of the Tettigoniid ear (cricket hearing)
Opercular beat rate for
rainbow darters Etheostoma caeruleum exposed to chemical
stimuli from conspecific and heterospecific fishes
Aggression in
invertebrates