1 - University of Southern California



NEUR 524 Syllabus, Fall 2009

Class Coordinators: Michael Arbib & Thomas McNeill

(HNB100, TuTh 2-4)

Textbook: Principles of Neural Science, edited by Eric R. Kandel, James H. Schwartz and Thomas M. Jessell, McGraw-Hill Medical; 4th edition (2000). This will be supplemented by many journal articles

Prerequisites: The following chapters of the Textbook provide the background for the lectures in NEUR 524:

1. The Brain & Behavior; 2. Nerve Cells & Behavior; 3. Genes & Behavior; 4. The Cytology of Neurons; 5. Synthesis & Trafficking of Neuronal Protein; 17. The Anatomical Organization of the Central Nervous System; 21. Coding of Sensory Information; 27. Central Visual Pathways. 33. The Organization of Movement. 44. Brain Stem, Reflexive Behavior, and the Cranial Nerves.

Anatomy Source: S. Mark Williams, Leonard E. White, and Andrew C. Mace, 2007, Sylvius 4: An Interactive Atlas and Visual Glossary of Human Neuroanatomy, Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates. (Available as download only).

Syllabus: Prerequisite Structure

|Lecture |Topic + Pre-Course Reading |Lecturer |Background Lectures |

|8/25 |Introduction to the Course: The Brain at Multiple Levels |Arbib 1 | |

| |Required Background: KSJ. Chapter 1. The Brain & Behavior, Chapter 2. | | |

| |Nerve Cells and Behavior; Supplement (review swiftly now; master in detail| | |

| |later): Chapter 17. The Anatomical Organization of the Central Nervous | | |

| |System + Material on functional imaging: pp.366-379 | | |

|8/27 |Development and history: from single-cell to brain, anatomy and history |Swanson | |

| |nervous system, lead into neural development | | |

| |Background required: KSJ Chapter 1 | | |

|9/1 |Development: Mechanisms of induction, patterning of the nervous system and|Levitt 1 |Swanson |

| |neurogenesis. | | |

|9/3 |Development: Cell migration, guidance and synapse formation |Levitt 2 |Levitt 1 |

|9/8 |Basics of Neural Function: Cable Theory |Grzywacz 1 | |

| |Assumed Background Knowledge: The basic morphology of the neuron, namely, | | |

| |dendrites, soma, and axons, along with some knowledge about their | | |

| |function. The function and basic time course of the action potential. Some| | |

| |understanding of how RC circuits work. (Where to Acquire the Background | | |

| |Knowledge: Kandel Chapters 2, 6, and 7.) | | |

|9/10 |Basics of Neural Function: Hodgkin-Huxley model |Mel |Grzywacz 1 |

|9/15 |Basics of Neural Function: Synapses, Dendrites and Neural Integration |Grzywacz 2 |Grzywacz 1 |

| |Assumed Background Knowledge: The basics of chemical synaptic | | |

| |transmission, including pre- and postsynaptic mechanisms. (KSJ Chapters | | |

| |10, 11, and 14.) | | |

|9/17 |Basics of Neural Function: Ion channels: structure, function and diversity|Liman |Mel |

| |Background Required:KSJ Chapter 6 | |Grzywacz 2 |

|9/22 |Memory and Learning: Basic mechanisms of Synaptic Plasticity |Walsh |Grzywacz 2 |

| |Background Required: | |Liman |

|9/23 Wednesday |Special Neuroanatomy Lecture: |McNeill (Anatomy) | |

| |9/23 from 1-3 in HNB 100. | | |

|9/24 |Motor Control: Reach & Grasp |Winstein | |

| |Background Required: KSJ Chapter 33 | | |

|9/29 |Motor Control: Locomotion and the neural network for swimming. |Bradley |Winstein |

|10/1 |Motor Control: Theory of motor control (feedback, feedforward & adaptive |Schweighofer |Winstein |

| |models) | |Bradley |

| |Background Required: Chapter 33 | | |

|10/6 |Motor Control: Synapses at the Neuromuscular Junction: Cellular |McNeill 1 |Grzywacz 2 |

| |Presynaptic Mechanisms and Structure of Receptors | |Liman |

| |Background Required: KSJ Chapter 33 | |Bradley |

|10/8 |Emotion, Motivation, and Decision-Making |Watts |Swanson |

|10/13 |Exam I | | |

|10/15 |Motor Control: Huntington’s and Parkinson’s Diseases |McNeill 2 | |

|10/20 |Emotion, Motivation, and Decision-Making |Bechara |Watts |

|10/22 |Emotion, Motivation, and Decision-Making: Mirror Neurons, Theory of Mind |Arbib 2 |Winstein |

| |and Autism | | |

|10/27 |Emotion, Motivation, and Decision-Making: Dopamine, Its Receptors, and Its|McNeill 3 |McNeill 2 |

| |Modulators; Addiction | |Bechara |

|10/29 |Emotion, Motivation, and Decision-Making: Cellular and Genetic Components |Bouret | |

| |of the Neural Control of Obesity | | |

|11/3 |Memory and Learning: Working memory and Executive Function; Hebbian, |Arbib 3 |Grzywacz 2 |

| |supervised and reinforcement learning | |Zhang |

|11/5 |Memory and Learning: Habituation, Sensitization, Classical Conditioning |Thompson |Arbib 3 |

|11/10 |Memory and Learning: Alzheimer’s Disease: |McNeill 4 |McNeill 3 |

| | | |Arbib 3 |

|11/12 |Exam II | | |

|11/17 |Vision: Cellular Retinal Mechanisms. |Lee | |

|11/19 |Vision: Function, organization and development of the visual cortex |Grzywacz 3 | |

|11/24 |Vision: Seeing Shapes |Biederman |Grzywacz 3 |

|12/1 |Vision: Retinitis Pigmentosa and Retinal Prosthesis |Weiland |Lee |

| | | |Grzywacz 3 |

|12/3 |Vision: What we have learned from fMRI |Tjan |Grzywacz 3 |

| |Background Required: KSJ Chapters 2 & 25; pp.366-379. | |Biederman |

|12/10 |Final: ½ vision and ½ general concepts integrated across themes |2-4pm | |

Syllabus with Readings

|Date |Topic + Readings |Lecturer |

|8/25 |Introduction to the Course: The Brain at Multiple Levels |Arbib 1 |

| |This lecture gives an overview of the brain at multiple levels and how the syllabus is designed to enrich the | |

| |understanding of multi-level analysis. | |

| |It will also provide an introduction to the Sylvius Interactive Atlas of Human Neuroanatomy. | |

| |Required Reading: Four articles (Single-Cell Models; Perspective on Neuron Model Complexity; Schema Theory; | |

| |Cerebellum and Motor Control) from The Handbook of Brain Theory and Neural Networks (M.A. Arbib, Ed.), 2003,, The MIT| |

| |Press, Second Edition; Arbib, M.A., Schweighofer, N., and Thach, W. T., 1995, Modeling the Cerebellum: From | |

| |Adaptation to Coordination, in Motor Control and Sensory-Motor Integration: Issues and Directions, (D. J. Glencross | |

| |and J. P. Piek, Eds.), Amsterdam: North-Holland Elsevier Science, pp. 11-36. | |

| |Required Background: KSJ. Chapter 1. The Brain & Behavior, Chapter 2. Nerve Cells and Behavior; Supplement (review | |

| |swiftly now; master in detail later): Chapter 17. The Anatomical Organization of the Central Nervous System + | |

| |Material on functional imaging: pp.366-379 | |

|8/27 |Development and history: from single-cell to brain, anatomy and history nervous system, lead into neural development |Swanson |

| |Outline: This lecture deals with the basic plan of the nervous system. Part 1 considers the macrostructural parts of | |

| |the nervous system from a developmental perspective: what is the geography of the nervous system? Part 2 outlines the| |

| |basic cell types of the nervous system from an evolutionary point of view: what is their micro structure- function | |

| |organization? And Part 3 outlines the major functional systems or circuits that together form the vertebrate nervous | |

| |system: how is behavior controlled and how are vital bodily functions coordinated? | |

| |Suggested reading: Swanson, Brain Research Reviews 55:356-372 (2007), and Swanson Trends Neurosci. 23:519-527 (2000).| |

| | | |

| |Background required: KSJ Chapter 1 | |

|9/1 |Development: Mechanisms of induction, patterning of the nervous system and neurogenesis. |Levitt |

| |Outline: In the first of two lectures, we will determine cover the first stages of neural development, from the | |

| |induction of the neural plate from ectodermal tissue to the mechanisms that allow undifferentiated cells to adopt | |

| |distinct neuronal identities. | |

| |Suggested Reading: KSJ Chapter 52 pp1019-1030, Chapter 53 pp1039-1048 | |

|9/3 |Development: Cell migration, guidance and synapse formation |Levitt |

| |Outline: In the second of these two lectures, we will examine how neural circuits are established during | |

| |embryogenesis. We discuss the mechanisms that permit differentiated neurons first to survive and then extend an axon | |

| |to make a highly specific synapse with the relevant target. | |

| |Suggested Reading: KSJ Chapter 54, Chapter 55 | |

| |Required reading for in class discussion: | |

| |Lin W, Burgess RW, Dominguez B, Pfaff SL, Sanes JR, Lee KF. | |

| |Distinct roles of nerve and muscle in postsynaptic differentiation of the neuromuscular synapse. | |

| |Nature. 2001 Vol 410 pp1057-64. | |

|9/8 |Basics of Neural Function: Cable Theory |Grzywacz 1 |

| |We will begin by describing neural membranes as equivalent RC-circuit models. The lecture will then sketch the | |

| |development of cable equations for dendrites and axons by considering them as linearly interconnected parallel RC | |

| |circuits. The consequences of the length and time constants, the parameters of the cable equations, will be | |

| |explained. | |

| |Reading: Kandel Chapters 8 and 9; Dayan & Abbott () pp. | |

| |161-175 and 203-220. | |

| |Assumed Background Knowledge: The basic morphology of the neuron, namely, dendrites, soma, and axons, along with some| |

| |knowledge about their function. The function and basic time course of the action potential. Some understanding of how| |

| |RC circuits work. (Where to Acquire the Background Knowledge: Kandel Chapters 2, 6, and 7.) | |

|9/10 |Basics of Neural Function: Hodgkin-Huxley model |Mel |

| |Building on the previous lecture, we will generalize the RC circuit models to one in which some of the resistors | |

| |(actually, conductances) depend on voltage. We will show how this generalized model, the Hodgkin-Huxley model, | |

| |accounts for the time course of action potentials in neurons. | |

| |Reading: As for the previous lecture. | |

|9/15 |Basics of Neural Function: Synapses, Dendrites and Neural Integration |Grzywacz 2 |

| |This talk will focus on chemical synapses, explaining pre- and postsynaptic mechanisms of the ionotropic and | |

| |metabotropic types.  We will also address excitatory and inhibitory synapses, and the NMDA synapse, which is | |

| |important for learning.  Finally, we will return to elements of cable theory to explain how dendrites integrate | |

| |postsynaptic activity.  | |

| |Reading: Kandel Chapters 12 and 13;  Spruston N.  (2008) Pyramidal neurons: dendritic structure and synaptic | |

| |integration.  Nat Rev Neurosci. 9:206-221. | |

| |Assumed Background Knowledge: The basics of chemical synaptic transmission, including pre- and postsynaptic | |

| |mechanisms. (Where to Acquire the Background Knowledge: KSJ Chapters 10, 11, and 14.) | |

|9/17 |Basics of Neural Function: Ion channels: structure, function and diversity |Liman |

| |Structure and function of ion channels: Stochiometry; Mechanism of selectivity; Mechanism of opening, closing and | |

| |inactivation | |

| |Diversity and disorders of ion channels: Example of diversity; Genetic disorders | |

| |Suggested Reading: Kandel ch 9 pp 162-169; Declan A. Doyle (1998);et al. The Structure of the Potassium Channel: | |

| |Molecular Basis of K + Conduction and Selectivity Science 280, 69 | |

|9/22 |Memory and Learning: Basic mechanisms of Synaptic Plasticity |Zhang |

| |The lecture will focus on the experimental results obtained from hippocampal slices, and will provide an over view of| |

| |the presynaptic and postsynaptic mechanisms underlying synaptic plasticity | |

| |Readings: Sanes JR, Lichtman JW. Can molecules explain long-term potentiation? Nat Neurosci. 1999 Jul;2(7):597-604. | |

| |Malenka RC, Nicoll RA. Long-term potentiation--a decade of progress? Science. 1999 Sep 17;285(5435):1870-4. | |

| |Background Required: | |

|9/24 |Motor Control: Reach & Grasp |Winstein |

| |In this lecture we see how the motor areas of the cerebral cortex integrate visual, proprioceptive, and other | |

| |information to produce more elaborate voluntary movements that require planning. Our focus will be on the functional | |

| |movements of reach and grasp actions, the role of the fronto-parietal network and how recent advances in fMRI and TMS| |

| |imaging in humans has been harnessed to probe the functional neural networks associated with goal-oriented behaviors | |

| |such as these. I will include a brief mention of mirror neurons in this context, but alert them to the more in depth | |

| |discussion in Arbib’s upcoming lecture (From Motor Control to Cognition). I will organize my lecture around two broad| |

| |questions: | |

| |What is the behavioral evidence that most reach-to-grasp actions are planned in advance? (Rosenbaum et al., | |

| |experiments—I will begin lecture with a simple demonstration of the wine glass experiment). | |

| |What are the functional neural correlates of reach-to-grasp actions? | |

| |Suggested Readings: KSJ Chapter 38 Voluntary Movement; Tunik, Rice, Hamilton and Grafton, ‘Beyond grasping: | |

| |Representation of action in human anterior intraparietal sulcus. NeuroImage 36: T77-T86, 2007. | |

| |Background Required: KSJ Chapter 33 | |

|9/29 |Motor Control: Locomotion and the neural network for swimming. |Bradley |

| |This lecture will review research in animal models and humans that examine the neural control of locomotor system. We| |

| |will consider both the relatively automatic character of locomotor behaviors that are nonetheless continually | |

| |modified to adapt movement to immediate surroundings. We will focus on: | |

| |Regulation of rhythm | |

| |Inter-segmental coordination | |

| |Integration of behavioral goals | |

| |Required Reading: Grillner, S. (2006) Biological Pattern Generation: The Cellular and Computational Logic of Networks| |

| |in Motion, Neuron 52: 751–766. | |

| |Suggested Reading: KSJ Chapter 37 Locomotion; Cangiano, L., and Grillner, S. (2003) Fast and slow locomotor burst | |

| |generation in the hemispinal cord of the lamprey, J Neurophysiol 89: 2931–2942; Cangiano, L, Grillner, S. (2005) | |

| |Mechanisms of rhythm generation in a spinal locomotor network deprived of crossed connections: the lamprey hemicord. | |

| |J Neurosci 25: 923–935; Reisman, DS, Block, HJ, Bastien, AJ. ‘Interlimb coordination during locomotion: What can be | |

| |adapted and stored? J Neurophysiol 94: 2403-2415, 2005. | |

|10/1 |Motor Control: Theory of motor control (feedback, feedforward & adaptive models) |Schweighofer |

| |Outline: The control of movements can only be performed via feedback or feedforward control. Although feedback | |

| |controllers requires very little neural machinery and allow for error corrections, they are not adequate to generate | |

| |fast and accurate movements in neural systems that contain long conduction and transmission delays; the brain thus | |

| |needs to use feedforward controllers. We present basic concepts of feedback control then discuss how the central | |

| |nervous system learns internal models in feedforward controllers. | |

| |Suggested Reading: Kawato M. Internal models for motor control and trajectory planning. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 1999 | |

| |Dec;9(6):718-272; Wolpert DM, Ghahramani Z. Computational principles of movement neuroscience. Nat Neurosci. 2000 | |

| |Nov;3 Suppl:1212-7. | |

| |Background Required: Chapter 33 | |

|10/6 |Motor Control: Synapses at the Neuromuscular Junction: Cellular Presynaptic Mechanisms and Structure of Receptors |McNeill 1 |

| |This lecture will focus on synaptic communication between axons of the motor neuron and skeletal muscle. We will also| |

| |briefly review the connections between the motor cortex and spinal cord. Students will be introduced to the concepts | |

| |of motor units and motor neuron pools, the anatomical features of the NMJ and steps in chemical transmission at the | |

| |NMJ. We will also review diseases that effect the NMJ both pre- and post-synaptically. | |

| |Suggested Readings: KSJ: Ch. 11,14, 16; Hirsch NP (2007): Neuromuscular junction in health and disease. Br. J. | |

| |Anaesth 99:132-138. Hughes et al. (2006) Molecular architecture of the neuromuscular junction. Muscle Nerve | |

| |33:445-461. | |

| |Background Required: KSJ Chapter 33 | |

|10/8 |Emotion, Motivation, and Decision-Making: Neuroendocrine response in motivated and emotional behavior |Watts |

| |Motivated behaviors and emotional responses are accompanied by specific patterns of autonomic and endocrine | |

| |responses. This lecture will outline the history, current understanding, and unsolved problems of the neural systems | |

| |responsible for controlling these responses. | |

| |Readings: KSJ, Chapter 49. The Autonomic Nervous System and the Hypothalamus. | |

|10/15 |Motor Control: Huntington’s and Parkinson’s Diseases |McNeill 2 |

| |This lecture focuses on the etiology, pathology and treatment of PD and HD with a particular emphasis the differences| |

| |between the two disease states | |

| |Readings: KSJ Ch. 15; Delong and Wichmann - Circuits and circuit disorders of the basal ganglia, Arch Neurol | |

| |64:20-24, 2007; Schapira - Treatment options in the modern management of Parkinson’s disease, Arch Neurol. | |

| |64:1083-1088, 2007; Hodges et al., - Regional and cellular gene expression changes in human Huntington’s disease | |

| |brain. Mol. Genetics 15:965-977, 2006. | |

|10/20 |Emotion, Motivation, and Decision-Making: Neuropsychology of Emotion and Decision Making |Bechara |

| |I will review the neurological evidence in support of a neural framework, the Somatic Marker Hypothesis, which | |

| |describes how decision-making is mediated in the brain, and how neural systems involved in emotional processing play | |

| |a key role in decision-making. I will also describe some applications of this neurological knowledge; specifically | |

| |understanding some of the abnormal mechanisms in this somatic marker circuitry, which leads to drug addiction. | |

| |Readings: Bechara A (2005) Decision-making, impulse control, and loss of willpower to resist drugs: A neurocognitive | |

| |perspective. Nature Neuroscience 8:1458-1463; Bechara A, Damasio A (2005) The somatic marker hypothesis: a neural | |

| |theory of economic decision. Games and Economic Behavior 52:336-372; Verdejo-Garcia A, Perez-Garcia M, Bechara A | |

| |(2006) Emotion, decision-making and substance dependence: A somatic-marker model of addiction. Current | |

| |Neuropharmacology 4:17-31. | |

|10/22 |Emotion, Motivation, and Decision-Making: Mirror Neurons, Theory of Mind and Autism |Arbib 2 |

| |The lecture will introduce the study of mirror neuronsa and mirror systems, briefly review their possible role in the| |

| |eviolution of the human capability for language; then discuss their relation to empathy and theory of mind and the | |

| |extent to which mirror system disorders do and do not explain autism spectrum disorders. | |

| |Suggested Readings: Rizzolatti, G., and L. Craighero. 2004. The mirror-neuron system. Annu Rev Neurosci 27:169-92; | |

| |Arbib, M.A., 2007, Premotor Cortex and the Mirror Neuron Hypothesis for the Evolution of Language, in Evolution of | |

| |Nervous Systems, A Comprehensive Reference. Volume 4. Primates (J.H. Kaas & T.M. Preuss, Editors), Amsterdam: | |

| |Elsevier, Academic Press, pp.417-422; Williams, J.H.G. (2008) Self-other relations in social development and autism: | |

| |Multiple roles for mirror neurons and other brain bases. Autism Research 1, 73-90; Arbib, M.A. (2007) Autism - More | |

| |than the Mirror System. Clinical Neuropsychiatry 4, 208-222 | |

|10/27 |Emotion, Motivation, and Decision-Making: Dopamine, Its Receptors, and Its Modulators; Addiction |McNeill |

| |This lecture will discuss the role dopamine plays in the integration of emotion and motivation in decision-making. It| |

| |will build on the information presented in the previous lecture by Barchara and discuss how the mechanisms of | |

| |reward-related learning are “hijacked” in drug addition. | |

| |Readings: KSJ Ch. 19,50, 51; Schultz - Multiple reward signals in the brain Nat. Reviews 1:199-207, 2007; Berns et. | |

| |al., - Predictability modulates human brain response to reward. J. Neuroscience 21:2793-2798, 2001; Hyman et al., - | |

| |Neural mechanisms of addiction: the role of reward-related learning and memory, Annu Rev Neurosci. 29:565-98, 2006 | |

| |Background Required: | |

|10/29 |Emotion, Motivation, and Decision-Making: Cellular and Genetic Components of the Neural Control of Obesity |Bouret |

| |This lecture will provide an overview of the functional organization of neural systems that control food intake and | |

| |energy metabolism emphasizing the role of peripheral hormones in regulating the activity of these circuits. In | |

| |addition, the utility of various rodent genetic models for understanding the function of energy balance, in both | |

| |adult animals and during development, will be discussed. | |

| |Suggested reading:: KSJ 4th ed. Chp.49 pp974-981; Chp. 50 pp1002-1006; Porte and M.W. Schwartz (2005) Diabetes, | |

| |obesity, and the brain; J.K. Elmquist et al. (2005) Identifying hypothalamic pathways controlling food intake, body | |

| |weight, and glucose homeostasis. | |

|11/3 |Memory and Learning: Working memory and Executive Function; Hebbian, supervised and reinforcement learning |Arbib 3 |

| |After a brief review of procedural and declarative memory, we turn to the role of working memory in executive | |

| |function, with special attention to interactions between basal ganglia and prefrontal cortex. We then briefly review | |

| |models of Hebbian, supervised and reinforcement learning. | |

| |Readings: KSJ: Chapter 19. Cognitive Capabilities of the Brain, Chapter 62. Learning & Memory; Arbib, M. A. 1989. The| |

| |Metaphorical Brain 2: Neural Networks and Beyond. New York: Wiley-Interscience. Sections 3.4 and 8.2. | |

|11/5 |Memory and Learning: Habituation, Sensitization, Classical Conditioning |Thompson |

| |The lecture will focus on the behavioral properties and basic mechanisms of these elementary forms of non-associative| |

| |and associative learning. | |

| |Readings: KSJ: pp.1227-1246 (Chapters 62 and 63). Fanselow MS, Poulos AM. (2005). The neuroscience of mammalian | |

| |associative learning. Annual Review of and Psychology, 56:207-34); Thompson, R.H. (in press) The History of | |

| |Habituation, in The Neurobiology of Learning | |

| |Background required: Basic synaptic transmission, particularly EPSPs and IPSPs; GABA and glutamate transmitters. | |

|11/12 |Memory and Learning: Alzheimer’s Disease |McNeill 3 |

| |This lecture will discuss the role dopamine plays in the integration of emotion and motivation in decision-making. It| |

| |will build on the information presented in the previous lecture by Barchara and discuss how the mechanisms of | |

| |reward-related learning are “hijacked” in drug addition. | |

| |Readings: KSJ Ch. 19,50, 51; Schultz - Multiple reward signals in the brain Nat. Reviews 1:199-207, 2007; Berns et. | |

| |al., - Predictability modulates human brain response to reward. J. Neuroscience 21:2793-2798, 2001; Hyman et al., - | |

| |Neural mechanisms of addiction: the role of reward-related learning and memory, Annu Rev Neurosci. 29:565-98, 2006 | |

| |Background Required: | |

|11/17 |Vision: Cellular Retinal Mechanisms |EJ Lee |

| |Considerable processing and filtering of visual information occurs at the earliest stage in the mammalian visual | |

| |system, the retina. In this lecture, we will look at the circuitries that underly this processing (Cone and rod | |

| |pathways), and discuss their synaptic mechanisms and molecular signatures | |

| |Suggested Readings: KSJ Chapter 26, Visual processing by the retina; Wassle H. Parallel Processing in the Mammalian | |

| |Retina. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 2004. 5:747-757. | |

|11/19 |Vision: Function, organization and development of the visual cortex |Grzywacz 3 |

| |We will begin by describing the ventral and dorsal pathways of the visual cortex, illustrating how the receptive | |

| |field transforms along these streams. The lecture will then focus on the orientation selective receptive field, along| |

| |with its organization in columns and in hypercolumn maps. The mechanisms for the formation of orientation selectivity| |

| |will be described. This description will include the orientation bias in the thalamo-cortical inputs, and the | |

| |intra-cortical circuits that sharpen the bias and normalize responses. Finally, we will describe experiments | |

| |illustrating developmental plasticity in orientation selectivity and will sketch Hebbian models for this phenomenon. | |

| |Reading Kandel Chapters 27 and 28; L.C. Sincich and J.C. Horton. The Circuitry of V1 and V2: Integration of Color, | |

| |Form, and Motion Annu. Rev. Neurosci. 2005. 28:303–326. | |

| |Assumed Background Knowledge: The basic visual pathway, including retina, thalamus, and cortex. Layered organization | |

| |of the cortex. Retinal and thalamic receptive fields. Hebbian synapses. (Where to Acquire the Background Knowledge | |

| |KSJ Chapter 26. Dayan & Abbott, pp. 281-293.) | |

|11/24 |Vision: Seeing Shapes |Biederman |

| |Dorsal-Ventral Cortical Visual Pathways: Patients D.F. & R.V. Severe shape agnosic with preserved capacity for motor | |

| |interactions (DF) & Complementary presentation (RV). fMRI identification of the Lateral occipital complex (LOC), the | |

| |locus of D.F.’s lesion. Homologue of L.O.C. in the macaque: IT, inferior temporal cortex. Why have two systems for | |

| |shape? Speculative model of cell tuning in dorsal (posterior parietal) and ventral (L.O.C-I.T.) pathways. | |

| |Seeing Shape (Ventral Pathway): Parts and Nonaccidental Properties. Activation times in macaque ventral pathway. RSVP| |

| |demo. Recognition-by-Components (RBC) proposal for object recognition. Nonaccidental properties (NAPs) as a partial | |

| |solution to the inverse optics problem. Behavioral, fMR-Adaptation, and single-unit evidence for a parts- and | |

| |NAP-based representations as mediating visual priming and cell tuning. | |

| |Suggested Readings. KSJ. Chapter 25. Constructing the Visual image. Goodale, M. A. & Westwood, D. A. (2004) An | |

| |evolving view of duplex vision: separate but interacting cortical pathways for perception and action. Curr Opin | |

| |Neurobiol 14(2): 203-211. | |

| |Background Required: | |

|12/1 |Vision: Retinitis Pigmentosa and Retinal Prosthesis |Weiland |

| |Outline: We will discuss diseases of the eye and retina. Then, we will review the history and current status of the | |

| |retinal prosthesis, an experimental device to ameliorate certain types of retinal disease. | |

| |Suggested Reading: Fried et al. A method for generating precise temporal patterns of retinal spiking using prosthetic| |

| |stimulation. J Neurophysiol. 2006 Feb;95(2):970-8. Epub 2005 Oct 19. Sekirnjak et al. Electrical stimulation of | |

| |mammalian retinal ganglion cells with multielectrode arrays. | |

| |J Neurophysiol. 2006 Jun;95(6):3311-27. Epub 2006 Jan 25. | |

| |de Balthasar et al. Factors affecting perceptual thresholds in epiretinal prostheses. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2008| |

| |Jun;49(6):2303-14. | |

| |Background Required: Basic retina anatomy and physiology | |

|12/3 |Vision: What we have learned from fMRI |Tjan |

| |Extremely brief information to MR physics: nucleus magnetic resonance, relaxation times, courses of relaxations, MR | |

| |image formation. General principle of BOLD fMRI: what is BOLD and how to measure it? The relationship between BOLD | |

| |signal and neural activities. Relationships between BOLD fMRI and other imaging modalities (electrophysiology, EEG, | |

| |MEG, intrinsic signal optical imaging). A typical setup for an fMRI experiment. A typical method for data analysis: | |

| |general linear models. Form vs. function: FFA and other face-related areas – the challenges of interpreting fMRI | |

| |results. Right tool for the right problem: functional anatomy of the human visual cortex by retinotopic mapping and | |

| |how it is different from monkey. | |

| |Suggested Reading: Wandell BA, Dumoulin SO, Brewer AA. Visual field maps in human cortex.  Neuron. 2007 Oct | |

| |25;56(2):366-83; Kanwisher N, Yovel G. The fusiform face area: a cortical region  specialized for the perception of | |

| |faces. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B  Biol Sci. 2006 Dec 29;361(1476):2109-28; Brown GG, Perthen JE, Liu TT, Buxton RB. A| |

| |primer on functional magnetic resonance imaging. Neuropsychol Rev. 2007 Jun;17(2):107-25. | |

| |Background Required: KSJ Chapters 2 & 25; pp.366-379. | |

|12/10 |Final: ½ vision and ½ general concepts integrated across themes |2-4pm |

In addition, two neuroanatomy labs are planned.

1. A two hour lecture on brain anatomy correlating gross brain and imaging. (McNeill)

2. A lab session focused on brain imaging with Hannah Damasio

There will be associated reading materials that will be tested on the Final Exam.

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