SDSU Systems Neuroscience (PSY 760 Phys. Corr. Behav.)

SPRING 2021 (go here for current/latest version)


Professor:
Marty Sereno — email: msereno - AT - sdsu
lecture recording times: Mon/Wed/Fri 9:00-9:50 AM (optional: Fri 8:00-8:50 AM)
lecture recording location: SSW 2667 (Learning Glass Studio, Student Services West)
All lectures live-streamed on Zoom and recorded to mediasite (zoom link on canvas homepage)

Resources:
Learning Glass lecture recordings
Neuroscience papers (background reading)
Sereno lecture notes (rough draft!) (168-page PDF [28MB] last update: 05 Mar 2021)
Neuroscience reference texts (not required):
    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
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 2021 (1-page syllabus: pdf)

Week of Jan 18 (Wed/Fri)Introduction

introduction to course
membrane (Nernst) potential


Week of Jan 25 (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 01 (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 08 (Mon/Wed)Neural Development

gastrulation, neural plate, neural tube, optic cup
cylindrical coordinate system, temporal lobe formation
the 'rule of Sereno'
[Fri: no class]


Week of Feb 15 (Mon/Wed/Fri)Visual System I

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


Week of Feb 22 (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 26


Week of Mar 01 (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 08 (Wed/Fri)Somatosensory System

[Mon: no class]
somatosensory receptor types
arm diagram (length, force, alpha/gamma motoneurons)
somatosensory pathways (dorsal column, spinothalamic, spinocerebellar)


Week of Mar 15 (Mon/Wed/Fri)Auditory System I

somatosensory cortical areas, discontinuities
somatosensory map plasticity
hair cell receptors, lateral line, electric fish
cochlear structure/transduction, 1D vs. 2D maps


Week of Mar 22 (Mon/Wed/Fri)Auditory System II

monaural cochlear nuclei connections, responses
binaural coincidence detection
construction of the space map


Week of Mar 29 (Mon/Fri)Motor System I

echolocation and speech sound processing
auditory cortical areas
[Wed: no class]
gaze stabilization (VOR, OKN, pursuit)


Week of Apr 05 (Mon/Wed/Fri)Motor System I

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 12 (Mon/Wed/Fri)Motor System II

motor system overview
cortical and spinal pattern generators
motor cortex
2nd midterm review
2nd Midterm Exam — Fri, Apr 16


Week of Apr 19 (Mon/Wed/Fri)Motor System III

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


Week of Apr 26 (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 03 (Mon/Wed)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 10, 8-10 AMFinal Exam

Final Exam
Graduate students: final paper due May 13



last modified: Jan 01, 2021
Scanned/video'd class notes (pdf, links above) © 2021 Martin I. Sereno
Supported by NSF 0224321, NIH MH081990, Royal Society Wolfson