Description
Learn how the nervous system generates behaviour, how we use our brain on a daily basis, and how neuroscience can explain common problems that people face today. We will study functional human neuroanatomy and neuronal communication, and then apply this knowledge to better understand how we perceive the outside world, move our bodies voluntarily, stay alive, and interact with others.
Syllabus :
1.The Nervous System
- Introduction: The Bauby Story
- Ethics and Brain Science
- I Am a Patient
- The Four Functions
- Central Anatomy
- Meet the Stars: Neurons
- Parts of the Neuron
- Neuronal Uniqueness: Stars of the Sky
- Glial Cells
- Myelin
- Demyelinating Diseases
- Meninges
- Peripheral Diseases
- Brain Tumors
- The Brain and the Spinal Cord
- Meninges
- Brain Tumors
2. Neural Communication + Embodied Emotion
- Electrical Language
- Electricity Review
- Action Potential
- Neurotransmitter Synthesis
- Neurotransmitter Release
- Clostridial Toxins: Botox
- Signal Termination
- Receptors
- Metabotropic Receptors
- Wrap-Up: Neurocommunication
- Introduction to Embodied Emotion
- Enteric Nervous System
- Parasympathetics & Sympathetics
- Parasympathetic/Sympathetic Balance
- Autonomic Pharmacology: Adjusting the PS/S System
- Spinal Cord Injury
- Wrap-Up: Embodied Emotion
3. Neuroanatomy
- Introduction to Neuroanatomy
- Neural Tube Formation
- Neural Tube Defects
- Brain Vesicles
- Expansion of the Cerebral Cortex
- Two Forebrain Tracts
- Cerebral Palsy
- Nerves
- CNS Regional Functions
- Hemisphere Functions
- Aphasia
- Language Circuits
- Making a Flat Schematic of the Brain
- Oxygen and Cerebral Blood Flow
- Blood Supply
- Strokes and Tumors
- Bleeds
- Spinal Cord
- Inside the Cranium
- Telencephalon
- Cortex
- Cerebellum
- Visual Pathway
- Pituitary Tumors
- Blood Supply
- Hippocampus & Alzheimer's Disease
4. Perception and Vision
- Introduction to Perception
- Sensory Interpretation: Optical Illusions
- Sensory Interpretation: Auditory Illusions
- Sensory Interpretation: Weber's Law
- Stimulus Set
- The Road to Perception
- Name the Senses
- The Visual Pathway
- Distance Vision
- Near Vision + Near Triad
- Emmetropization
- Light Path
- Rods and Cones
- Central Vision
- Color Vision
- Visual Fields
- The Importance of Edges
- Visual Perception
- Learning to See
- Sheep Brain vs Human Brain
- Sheep Cerebellum
- Sheep Brain Parts
- Sheep Brainstem
- Sheep Ventricles, pt.1
- Sheep Ventricles, pt.2
- Sheep Spinal Cord & Cauda Equina
5. Hearing
- Introduction to Hearing
- Experiences of Hearing Loss
- Hearing Pathways
- External Ear
- Rinne Test
- Middle Ear
- Inner Ear
- Cochlear Amplifier
- Outer Hair Cell Motility
- Otoacoustic Emissions
- Hearing Loss
- Weber and Rinne
- Expectation: Interpreting Sound
- Prosody
- Communication
- Wrap-up: Hearing
6. The Vestibular Sense & Gaze
- Introduction to Vestibular Sense
- The Vestibular Stimulus
- Canals and Otoconial Masses
- Hair Cell Orientation
- Yoked End Organs, Part 1
- Yoked End Organs, Part 2
- Otoconial Disorders
- Visual Integration
- The VOR Is Fast
- Horizontal VOR Circuitry
- Nystagmus
- Adapting the VOR
- Eye Movements
- Saccades
- Saccade Circuits
- Controlling Saccades
7. Voluntary Movements
- Introduction to Voluntary Movement
- Motor Hierarchy
- Problems with Motor Hierarchy
- Motor Modulation
- Fast and Slow Fibers
- Motoneuron Types
- Orderly Recruitment
- Exercise and Muscle Mass
- Monosynaptic Reflex
- Co-activation
- Gamma Reflex Loop
- Posture
- Postural Control
- Central Pattern Generator
- Intro to Self-Generated Movements
- Praxis
- Emotional Movements
- Wrap-up
8. Motor Modulation
- The Data-Driven Cerebellum
- The Purkinje Cell
- Cerebellar Functions
- Cerebellar Topography
- Cerebellar Laterality
- Efference Copy and Sensory Reafference
- Cerebellar Learning and the VOR
- Extreme Vestibular Plasticity (optional)
- More Cerebellar Learning
- Action Selection
- Basal Ganglia Anatomy
- Basal Ganglia Pathways
- Basal Ganglia Experiment (optional)
- Operational Learning
- Chunking
- Parkinson's Disease
- Non-Motor Functions of Basal Ganglia
- Cerebellum and Basal Ganglia Cooperation
- Wrap-Up: Voluntary Movement, part 2
9. Homeostasis
- Introduction to Homeostasis
- Hypothalamic Anatomy
- Pituitary Gland & Gigantism
- Post-Partum Mood Disorders
- Thermoregulation
- Hyperthermia
- Fever and Hot Flashes
- Breathing
- Urination
- Problems with the Urination System
- Sleep Phenomenology
- Sleep Mechanisms
- Wrap-Up: Homeostasis
10. Abstract Function
- Introduction to Abstract Function
- Bauby and Emotion
- Thalamic Attention
- Mushroom Hunting
- Memory Types
- PTSD
- Semantic Memories
- Episodic Memories
- The Story of H.M.
- Memory Formation Circuitry
- Hollywood Amnesia
- Clinical Amnesia
- Introduction to Language
- Aphasias
- Prosody
- Intellectual Disability
- Your Brain, Your Illness
- Future Challenges