Catalog Description

Bi/CNS 150. Neurobiology. 10 units (4-0-6); first term. General principles of the function and organization of nervous systems, providing both an overview of the subject and a foundation for advanced courses. Topics include the physical and chemical bases for action potentials, synaptic transmission, and sensory transduction; anatomy; development; sensory and motor pathways; memory and learning at the molecular, cellular, and systems level; and the neuroscience of brain diseases. Instructors: Adolphs, Kennedy, Lester.

Lectures will be held at MWF 11-12 in the 1st Floor Broad Center Lecture Hall

News

12/7/07	Final is now posted.
12/4/07	Final review section will be held on Dec 6 at 7 pm in Broad 100.
10/31/07	Midterm is now posted.
10/1/07	Section assignment is up. Please check here.
9/26/07	IMPORTANT! Sign up for the class email list here.

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Course Calendar & Links

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Lecture images are often posted in draft form the evening preceding the lecture, by 9 PM.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
October 1	October 2	October 3	October 4	October 5
Introduction to the course. Membrane structure. Deriving the ionic behavior of the nervous system from first principles. Nernst potentials. The major proteins of membrane physiology. (Lester)		Voltage-dependent channels and action potentials. Part I (Lester)	Electronics Review (Lester)	Voltage-dependent channels and action potentials. Part II (Lester)
Chapters 6-9		Chapters 6-9	Appendix A Broad 100, 7-8 PM	Chapters 6-9
October 8	October 9	October 10	October 11	October 12
Synapses: Biophysical Machines (Lester)		Cell Biology of Transmitter Release (Kennedy)	Discussion Section Organization	The acetylcholine receptor and organization of the neuromuscular junction (Kennedy)
Chapters 10 & 11		Chapters 14 & 15		Chapter 11
October 15	October 16	October 17	October 18	October 19
Inhibition; electrical integration of signals; cable properties of dendrites and and axons (Lester)		Dendritic excitability, Inward rectifiers, Glia (Lester)	Discussion Section	The G protein pathway in neuroscience (Lester)
Chapters 2 & 12	Problem Set 1 posted by 5 PM			Chapters 13
October 22	October 23	October 24	October 25	October 26
Development of the Nervous sysmtem #1 (Lester)	Problem Set 1 Due at 4:30 PM	Development of the Nervous sysmtem #2 (Lester)	Discussion Section	AMPA receptors and GABA receptors: organization of CNS synapses (Kennedy)
Chapters 52 through 56	Problem Set 2 posted by 5 PM	Chapters 52 through 56		Chapter 12
October 29	October 30	October 31	November 1	November 2
Synaptic Plasticity; LTP and LTD (Kennedy)	Problem Set 2 Due at 4:30 PM	NMDA Receptors; the biochemistry of synaptic plasticity (Kennedy)	No Discussion Section (Midterm week)	Anatomy of the CNS (Adolphs)
Chapters 13 & 63		Chapters 12 & 63 MIDTERM handed out		Chapters 17, 18, first half of 19
November 5	November 6	November 7	November 8	November 9
The Olfactory System (Lester)		The Visual System From retina to visual cortex (Adolphs)	Discussion Section	Visual System; cortical processing and object recognition (Adolphs) supplementary video files
Chapter 32	MIDTERM DUE at 4:30 PM	Chapters 21 & 27		Chapter 25
November 12	November 13	November 14	November 15	November 16
Vision; the retina and detection of light (Kennedy)		The auditory system (Adolphs)	Discussion Section	The Somatosensory System (Adolphs)
Chapter 26	Problem Set 3 posted by 5 PM	Chapter 30		Chapter 22
November 19	November 20	November 21	November 22	November 23
Aminergic Systems, Mood and Depression (Kennedy)	Problem Set 3 Due at 4:30 PM	Schizophrenia (Lester)	THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY	THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY
Chapter 61		Chapter 60
November 26	November 27	November 28	November 29	November 30
The motor system (Adolphs)		Learning and Memory I Types of Memory; non-declarative memory (Adolphs)	Discussion Section	Learning and Memory II Declarative Memory and modulation of memory (Adolphs)
Chapters 38, 42 & 43	Problem Set 4 posted by 5 PM	Chapter 62		Chapter 62
December 3	December 4	December 5	December 6	December 7
Emotion and Social Behavior (Adolphs)	Problem Set 4 due at 4:30 PM	Neurodegenerative Disorders Alzheimer's disease (Kennedy)	Discussion Section Final Review	Higher Functions (staff)
Chapters 49 & 50		Chapter 58	Broad 100, 7-8 PM	Final handed out DUE December 14 at 4:30 PM