Courses

All courses carry three credits unless otherwise specified.

NeuroS&B 617 Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Neurobiology
The objective of this course is to provide NSB and MCB graduate students with the background necessary to understand the molecular and cellular proceses underlying brain development and neural functioning. The course brings together a number of faculty who have both training and expertise in the topics covered. An understanding of molecular and cellular neurobiology and neural development is becoming increasingly important, especially with the advent of transgenic animals and their use in a wide range of research fields.

NeuroS&B 618 Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience
This is a core course required of all Neuroscience and Behavior Program Ph.D. and M.S. students. The purpose of the course is to provide students with an overview of neuroanatomy and systems neuroscience, with special emphasis on cognition, including perception, recognition, attention, memory, and motor control. Additional topics to be covered include sensory systems, circadian rhythms and sleep-wakefulness, reproductive and maternal behaviors, and long-term potentiation. Weekly lab sessions will focus on learning neuroanatomy by sheep brain dissection, neurohistology exercises involving examination of brain sections stained using different techniques, and methods in cognitive neuroscience, including EEG recording, brain imaging with functional MRI, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and eye tracking. Credit, 4.

NeuroS&B 699 Master’s Thesis
Credit, 1-10.

NeuroS&B 792A Proseminar
This mandatory pass/fail course is for first-year graduate students in the Neuroscience and Behavior Program. This course provides the opportunity for incoming graduate students to interact regularly with other graduate students and faculty to maintain a sense of community within the Program. Students will learn about available opportunities for extramural funding, the basics of grant-writing, and learn to become active participants in discussions of research in colloquia. Resources that are available on-campus and on-line for research related activities will be highlighted. At the end of the semester each student will prepare and present an academic talk regarding their research or research interests. A series of short seminars will be given by faculty within the Neuroscience and Behavior Program to allow students to become familiar with current research in each of the core areas of the program: Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience; Neural and Behavioral Development; Neuroendocrinology; Animal Behavior, Learning and Computational Neuroscience; and, Sensory and Motor Systems. Credit, 1.

NeuroS&B 891BN Landmark Papers in Behavioral Neuroscience
This course will introduce graduate students to landmark papers in Behavioral Neuroscience.  Each week, a student will discuss a landmark journal article in the field.  They will put the paper in historical perspective by answering the following questions:  What led to the publication?  Was it accepted by the field, or was it rejected, because it contradicted dogma?  Did it result in a paradigm shift?  What came next?  How did it change the development of the discipline?  Although there will be no final exam, there will be a term paper.

NeuroS&B 891C Biological Rhythms
This Journal Club will focus on neurobiology and modeling of circadian rhythms in mammals. The circadian clock is comprised of a network of cell-autonomous oscillators whose function depends upon transcriptional-translational feedback loops. The master pacemaker is entrained by environmental signals and regulates slave oscillators throughout the organism. This is an exciting and highly multidisciplinary field: mathematical modeling as well as molecular neurobiology are essential to understand these rhythms. The five-college clocks group brings together students and faculty from several departments. Credit, 1-3.

NeuroS&B 891L Neurobiology of Disease
This seminar is designed to acquaint students with the symptoms, pathophysiology, etiology, and treatment of various neuropsychiatric disorders. Potential topics include neurodegenerative diseses such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, as well as psychiatric disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism. Each participant in the course will be required to give presentations (depending on class size) on a neuropsychiatric disorder and submit a 15-page end-of-semester research proposal or review paper on the neuropsychiatric disease they have chosen to study. Grades will be based on class presentations, attendance, class participation, and short reaction papers and term paper if applicable. Interested students from any life science discipline are welcome.

NeuroS&B 892B Synapses, Circuits and Behavior
Credit, 1.

NeuroS&B 899 Doctoral Dissertation
Credit, 18.