Structure and Measurement of the Brain (Winter 2013)

Neuroanatomy, Neurophysiology, and Neuroimaging Physics

WINTER 2013 (go here for current/latest version)

Professor:

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

class: Mon 10:00-12:30 AM, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Queen Sq B10

expect to take copious notes since exam heavily based on lectures

Readings:

reading list and readings here (MRI notes precis added 21 Mar)

background reading:

    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.

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

Revision sessions (confirmed):

Mon, 25 March, 10-12:30 AM, B10

Mon, 8 April, 10-12:30 AM, B10

Exam:

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

each question has several short-answer subsections

example questions mentioned 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

Lecture Topics:

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07 Jan (10:00-12:30) -- (1) Neurons and Models I

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membrane (Nernst) potential
action potential, voltage-gated channels
post-synaptic potentials, ligand-gated channels
dendritic propagation, equivalent circuits

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14 Jan (10:00-12:30) -- (2) Neurons and Models II, Neural Development

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NMDA channels, synaptic plasticity
spike-timing-dependent plasticity
relation to simple Hebbian models
- - - - - - - - - - -
gastrulation, neural plate, neural tube, optic cup
cylindrical coordinate system, temporal lobe formation
the 'rule of Sereno'

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21 Jan (10:00-12:30) -- (3) Visual System I

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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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28 Jan (10:00-12:30) -- (4) Visual System II

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visual areas overview
aperture problems and visual pattern motion
visual attention
visual object recognition

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04 Feb (10:00-12:30) -- (5) Somatosensory System

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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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11 Feb -- NO CLASS -- READING WEEK

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18 Feb (10:00-12:30) -- (6) 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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25 Feb (10:00-12:30) -- (7) Motor System I

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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)

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04 Mar (10:00-12:30) -- (8) Motor System II

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cerebellum anatomy, physiology
cerebellum and learning/conditioning
cortical and spinal pattern generators
connectional/functional overview striatum

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11 Mar (10:00-12:30) -- (9) Limbic System

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connectional overview limbic system
H.M. and intermediate term memory
place cells
head direction cells
grid cells
models theta rhythms, attractor networks

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18 Mar (10:00-12:30) -- (10) MRI Physics; MEG/EEG Physics

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MRI hardware
spin and precession, Bloch equation
converting longitudinal recovery differences into recordable transverse
spin echo and gradient echo
phase-sensitive detection
frequency-encoding -- avoid this intuition
frequency-encoding -- correct intuition
spin phase in image space--what gradients do
complex numbers, e to the minus i-theta, Fourier transform
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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10 Apr, 10:00-12:00 -- EXAM

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UCL: Taviton 16, Rm 347
BBK: Malet Street, Rm 534