Structure and Function of the Brain

Neuroanatomy, Neurophysiology, and Neuroimaging Physics

WINTER 2015 (go here for current/latest version)

Professor:

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

class time (2015): Mon 9:30-13:00 (15 min break @10:45),

location: B01, Chandler House, 2 Wakefield St, just beyond Brunswick Centre (N.B.: orig location was B10 ICN!)

expect to take copious notes since exam heavily based on lectures

Readings:

reading list and readings here

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:

Mon, 23 March 2015, 9:30-13:00, B10, Inst. Cog. Neuroscience

Mon, 30 March 2015, 9:30-13:00, B10, Inst. Cog. Neuroscience

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 (Winter 2015):

---

12 Jan (9:30-13:00) -- (1) Neurons and Models, Development

---

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

---

19 Jan (9:30-13:00) -- (2) Visual System I

---

retinal circuitry
dLGN (layers, non-lagged/lagged)
visual map structure (conformal maps)
edges, brightness, and primary motion in V1
cortical visual processing streams (interblobs, blobs, layer 4B)

---

26 Jan (9:30-13:00) -- (3) Visual System II

---

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

---

02 Feb (9:30-13:00) -- (4) Somatosensory System

---

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

---

09 Feb -- NO CLASS -- UCL READING WEEK

---

---

16 Feb -- NO CLASS -- BBK READING WEEK

---

---

23 Feb (9:30-13:00) -- (5) Auditory System

---

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

---

02 Mar (9:30-13:00) -- (6) Motor System

---

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
cortical and spinal pattern generators
connectional/functional overview striatum

---

09 Mar (9:30-13:00) -- (7) Limbic System

---

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

---

16 Mar (9:30-13:00) -- (8) MRI Physics; MEG/EEG Physics

---

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

---

23 Mar (9:30-13:00) -- Revision Session 1

---

N.B.: at B10 at ICN, not Chandler House!

---

30 Mar (9:30-13:00) -- Revision Session 2

---

N.B.: at B10 at ICN, not Chandler House!

---

31 Mar (Tue), 10:00-12:00 -- EXAM

---

UCL Location: Room G07, Chadwick Building
BBK Location: Room 534, Malet Street Building [10:00-12:30]