SDSU Systems Neuroscience (PSY0568, PSY0768)

SPRING 2020 (go here for current/latest version)

Course Flyer:
FlyerPsy568,678.pdf
(previously SCI0596, N.B.: was "SCI", now "PSY"!)

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)
Sereno lecture notes (rough draft!) (168-page PDF [28MB] last update: 14 Jul 2020)
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, organization 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 2020 (1-page syllabus: pdf)

Week of Jan 20 (Wed, first class Jan 22)Introduction

introduction to course
membrane (Nernst) potential


Week of Jan 27 (Mon/Wed/Fri)Cellular Physiology

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


Week of Feb 03 (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 10 (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 17 (Mon/Wed/Fri)Visual System I

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


Week of Feb 24 (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 28


Week of Mar 02 (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 09 (Mon/Wed/Fri)Somatosensory System

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


Week of Mar 16 (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 23 (Mon/Wed/Fri)Auditory System II

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


Week of Mar 30SPRING BREAK



Week of Apr 06 (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 13 (Mon/Wed/Fri)Motor System II

motor system overview
cortical and spinal pattern generators
motor cortex
2nd midterm review
2nd Midterm Exam — Fri, Apr 17


Week of Apr 20 (Mon/Wed/Fri)Motor System III

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


Week of Apr 27 (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 May 04 (Mon/Wed, last class May 06)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


Mon, May 11, 8-10 AMFinal Exam

Final Exam
Graduate students: final paper due May 14



last modified: Jan 21, 2020
Scanned/video'd class notes (pdf, links above) © 2020 Martin I. Sereno
Supported by NSF 0224321, NIH MH081990, Royal Society Wolfson