SDSU Systems Neuroscience (SCI0596, PSY0568, PSY0768)

SPRING 2018 (go here for current/latest version)

Course Flyer:: FlyerSci596.pdf
Professor:: Marty Sereno — email: msereno - AT - sdsu; time: MWF 9:00 - 9:50 AM (graduate: F 8:00 - 8:50); location: SSW 2667 (Learning Glass Studio, Student Services West); take lots of notes to help comprehension, exams heavily based on lectures
Resources:: Learning Glass lecture recordings; Neuroscience papers (background reading); Neuroscience reference texts:; Squire, Berg et al., eds. (2008/2013) Fundamental Neuroscience, 3rd/4th ed.; Kandel, Jessell, Schwartz, eds. (2008/2012) Principles of Neural Science, 5th/6th ed.; Nieuwenhuys, Voogd, van Huijzen (2008) The Human Central Nervous System, 4th ed.; Neuroscience ugrad textbooks:; Nicholls et al. (2012) From Neuron to Brain, 5th ed.; Bear, Connors, and Paradiso (2006/2015) Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain, 3rd/4th ed.
Exams:: multiple question short-answer, each question with a few subsections, examples given in lecture; undergraduate: 2 midterms, final — short-answer (midterms: 30% each, final: 40%); graduate: 2 midterms, final (midterms: 24% each, final: 32%), and short final paper (20%); old pdf answer keys from my similar UCSD Systems Neuroscience course (2007) here and here
Learning Objectives:: Students will be able to do the following:; (1) explain neuronal electrochemistry, development, evolution, relate to dendritic/Hebbian/attractor models; (2) diagram neuroanatomical structures/connections low to high level in visual, somatosensory, auditory systems; (3) analyze sequential processing stages in visual, somatosensory, and auditory systems from signals and systems view; (4) diagram structures/connections in superior colliculus, cerebellum, striatum, motor cortex, and limbic system; (5) describe neural models of eye movement planning, hierarchical motor control, representation of position/orientation; N.B.: consult with me if a disability hinders your performance so we can use University resources to maximize learning
Lecture Topics — Spring 2018 (syllabus pdf): Week of Jan 15 (Wed/Fri, first class Jan 17) — Introduction

introduction to course
membrane (Nernst) potential

Week of Jan 22 (Mon/Wed/Fri) — Cellular Physiology

action potential, voltage-gated channels
post-synaptic potentials, ligand-gated channels
NMDA channels, spike-timing-dependent plasticity

Week of Jan 29 (Mon/Wed/Fri) — Relation to Neural Models

dendritic propagation, equivalent circuits
relation to simple Hebbian network models
relation to simple attractor network models

Week of Feb 05 (Mon/Wed/Fri) — Neural Development

gastrulation, neural plate, neural tube, optic cup
cylindrical coordinate system, temporal lobe formation
the 'rule of Sereno'

Week of Feb 12 (Mon/Wed/Fri) — Visual System I

retinal circuitry and streams
dLGN (layers, non-lagged/lagged)
visual map structure (conformal maps)

Week of Feb 19 (Mon/Wed/Fri) — Visual System II

general scheme for cortical layers
edges, brightness, and primary motion in V1
1st midterm review
1st Midterm Exam — Fri, Feb 23, location TBA

Week of Feb 26 (Mon/Wed/Fri) — Visual System III

aperture problems in general (color intro)
aperture problems for visual pattern translation, optical flow
visual attention
visual object recognition

Week of Mar 05 (Mon/Wed/Fri) — Somatosensory System

somatosensory receptor types
arm diagram (length, force, alpha/gamma motoneurons)
somatosensory pathways (dorsal column, spinothalamic, spinocerebellar)
somatosensory cortical areas, discontinuities
somatosensory map plasticity

Week of Mar 12 (Mon/Wed/Fri) — Auditory System I

hair cell receptors, lateral line, electric fish
cochlear structure/transduction, 1D vs. 2D maps
monaural cochlear nuclei responses

Week of Mar 19 (Mon/Wed/Fri) — Auditory System II

auditory brainstem sound localization
echolocation and speech sound processing
auditory cortical areas

Week of Mar 26 — SPRING BREAK

Week of Apr 02 (Mon/Wed/Fri) — Motor System I

gaze stabilization (VOR, OKN, pursuit)
superior colliculus retinal and motor maps
sensorimotor coordinate transforms (double-step remembered saccade)
multisensory map interactions — sup. collic visual/auditory
multisensory map interactions — VIP somatosensory/visual

Week of Apr 09 (Mon/Wed/Fri) — Motor System II

motor system overview
cortical and spinal pattern generators
motor cortex
2nd midterm review
2nd Midterm Exam — Fri, Apr 13, location TBA

Week of Apr 16 (Mon/Wed/Fri) — Motor System III

cerebellum anatomy, physiology
cerebellum and learning/conditioning
connectional/functional overview striatum
striatum and hierachical sequencing

Week of Apr 23 (Mon/Wed/Fri) — Limbic System

connectional overview limbic system
H.M./intermediate term memory vs. inertial guidance
place cells
head direction cells
grid cells
models: theta rhythms, attractor networks

Week of Apr 30 (Mon/Wed, last class May 02) — Neuroimaging MRI/EEG/MEG

hardware, spin vs. precession, Bloch equation
spin echo and gradient echo
phase-sensitive detection, intro to complex numbers
frequency-encoding — incorrect and correct intuitions
signal-to-noise
neural source of EEG/MEG signals
current source density, linear foward solution
course review

May 07 (Mon, 8-10 AM) — Final Exam

Final Exam
Graduate students: final paper due May 10

last modified: Jan 23, 2018
Scanned/video'd class notes (pdf, links above) © 2018 Martin I. Sereno
Supported by NSF 0224321, NIH MH081990, Royal Society Wolfson