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MCDB 352 001 WN 2017
This course focuses on understanding how the cellular properties of neurons and the pattern of synaptic connections between neurons allow nervous systems to decipher incoming sensory information, and generate appropriate motor responses. The course will begin with a brief review of the electrical properties of neurons and the basic anatomy of mammalian nervous systems. The rest of the first half of the course will concentrate on sensory systems, with a particular focus on the visual systems of vertebrates. This section will deal with how physical and chemical signals are transduced into electrical signals, and how the brain's synaptic networks extract useful information from these signals to give rise to conscious perceptions. The second half of the course will focus on brain circuits that generate complex movements in both vertebrate and invertebrate animals, synaptic plasticity in motor systems, and regulation of behavioral states. A major focus of the lectures and discussion sections will be to help students understand the experiments that led to the development of current views. This course is designed for students majoring in Neuroscience but is also highly appropriate for students majoring in Biology or Cell and Molecular Biology. No credit will be granted to students who previously completed Biology 222.