Structure and Measurement of the Brain

Neuroanatomy, Neurophysiology, and Neuroimaging Physics

AUTUMN 2010 (go here for current/latest version)

Professor:

Marty Sereno -- email: m.sereno - AT - ucl

class: Mon 10:00-12:30 AM, Birkbeck B20

longer class most weeks: 9:45-12:45 (see below)

expect to take copious notes since exam heavily based on lectures

Readings:

reading list and readings here (moderate update in progress)

background reading:

    Squire, Berg et al., eds. (2008) Fundamental Neuroscience, 3rd ed.

    Kandel, Jessell, Schwartz, eds. (2008) Principles of Neural Science, 5th ed.

    Nieuwenhuys, Voogd, van Huijzen (2008) The Human Central Nervous System, 4th ed.

    Huettel, Song, McCarthy (2004) Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

    Sereno MRI physics lecture notes (equation-filled 63-page pdf here, don't panic)

    Lecture notes (by Flavia Filimon, ed. Tessa Dekker) lecture1, lecture2, lecture3, lecture4, lecture5

Exam:

multiple question short-answer (best 14 of 16 questions)

each question has several short-answer subsections

example questions provided after each lecture

old pdf answer keys from my 30-hour ugrad Systems Neuroscience course (2007) here and here

N.B.: old course covered more topics; our exam will only cover topics covered in class

N.B.: there will be questions on neuroimaging (no examples in old exams!)

Review session TBA

Lecture Topics: (Autumn 2010)

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04 Oct (10:00-12:00) -- (1) Neurons and Models

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membrane (Nernst) potential
action potential, voltage-gated channels
post-synaptic potentials, ligand-gated channels
dendritic propagation, equivalent circuits
NMDA channels and synaptic plasticity
spike-timing-dependent plasticity

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11 Oct (09:45-12:45) -- (2) Neural Developement, Visual System I

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gastrulation, neural plate, neural tube, optic cup
cylindrical coordinate system, temporal lobe formation
the 'rule of Sereno'
- - - -
retinal circuitry
visual map structure (conformal maps) dLGN (layers, non-lagged/lagged)
edges, brightness, and primary motion in V1
cortical visual processing streams (interblobs, blobs, layer 4B)

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18 Oct (09:45-12:45) -- (3) Visual System II, Somatosensory System

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visual pattern motion
visual attention
- - - -
somatosensory receptors types
arm diagram (length, force, alpha/gamma motoneurons)
somatosensory pathways (dorsal column, spinothalamic, spinocerebellar)
somatosensory cortical areas
somatosensory cortical plasticity

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25 Oct (09:45-12:45) -- (4) Auditory System

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auditory transduction and hair cell receptors
monaural cochlear nuclei responses
auditory brainstem sound localization
echolocation and speech sound processing
auditory cortical areas

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01 Nov (9:45-12:45) -- (5) Motor and Limbic System

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gaze stabilization (VOR, OKN, pursuit)
superior colliculus retinal and motor maps
sensorimotor coord. transforms (double-step remembered saccade)
multisensory map interactions (SC:vis/aud VIP:somato/vis)
cerebellum anatomy, physiology
cerebellum and learning/conditioning
- - - -
H.M. and intermediate term memory
place cells
head direction cells
grid cells and theta rhythms

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08 Nov -- NO CLASS -- READING WEEK

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15 Nov -- NO CLASS (see longer class times on other weeks)

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22 Nov -- NO CLASS (see longer class times on other weeks)

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29 Nov (9:45-12:45) -- (6) MRI Signals and Contrast

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cortical and spinal pattern generators
connectional overview limbic system
connectional overview striatum
- - - -
MRI hardware
spin and precession
Bloch equation
Bloch equation solutions

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06 Dec (09:45-12:45) -- (7) MRI Image Formation

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saturation recovery equation
converting longitudinal recovery differences into recordable transverse
spin echo mechanism
gradient echo mechanism
phase-sensitive detection
spatial frequency space (k-space)
frequency-encoding -- avoid this intuition
frequency-encoding -- correct intuition
spin phase in image space--what gradients do

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13 Dec (9:45-12:45) -- (8) MRI Pulse Sequences; MEG/EEG Forward/Inverse

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complex numbers and e to the minus i-theta
Fourier transform
aliasing and field-of-view
image reconstruction (inverse)
slice selection and phase encoding
fast gradient echo with small flip angle (FLASH)
echo planar imaging (EPI)
signal-to-noise considerations
- - - -
derivation of current source density
linear forward solution
linear inverse vs. dipole fitting

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12 Jan, 10:00-12:00 -- EXAM (Wilkins Old Refectory room)

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