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Course: Behavioral Neuroscience (PG 0351) Quarter: Summer 2000 Meeting Times: MTWHF 8:10-9:20 Location: Haley Center 3046 Instructor: Christopher Newland, Ph.D. 844-3295 newlamc@auburn.edu Thach 110 Office Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday. 9:15-10:00 or by appointment Text: Carlson, N.R. Foundations of Physiological Psychology 4th Editon. Allyn and Bacon. Online Study Guide: http://cw.abacon.com/bookbind/pubbooks/carlsonpob/ Overview and Course Objectives. In this course we examine relationships between the brain and behavior. The scope is broad but we will try to cover the material in such a way that you can get an idea of what is (and is not) known about interrelationships between the nervous system and behavior and how that is known. We cover the structure of the nervous system, the different dimensions along which structure falls (e.g., anatomical, neurochemical), the fundamental units of the nervous system (the neuron and the synapse), the function of different components of the central nervous system, some sensory and motor systems, and integrative activities like sleeping, conditioning, and remembering. At the end of the quarter we will examine some behavior disorders whose neural bases are relatively well-characterized. Some find this material difficult, especially the first time through, but it is within reach. The material is detailed in places, but the details do hang together in an orderly fashion. My advice is to come to class prepared and to resist mightily the temptation to procrastinate. Read each chapter at least twice, and preferably three times. Read it once before class in one or two sittings. The first reading need not be to memorize details but rather directed at getting an overview of what is in the chapter. Read it again as we go through it in class. Of course, then read the chapter before the exam and that reading should be for detail. I advise that when reading the chapter the second time you pause at the end of each section and summarize it using words and complete sentences. Pretend you are teaching it to someone else and, using the correct terms and experiments, explain what was in the chapter. Do all of your studying in a quiet place, with no distractions, and summarize it as you go through it. The figures in the text are especially good but some require some work. Pay attention to the diagrams; the effort will pay off. By the end of the quarter you should: --- Be able to describe the major features of the brain and spinal cord. --- Understand the action potential of neurons and the important events that take place in the synapse. --- Understand how synaptic events contribute to our understanding of drugs, drug abuse, and some behavioral disorders. --- Understand the basic principles that underlie sensory systems. --- Describe sleep and understand it as an active process --- Describe how the study of complex phenomena like learning and remembering are studied by neuroscientists. --- Appreciate how a science of behavior contributes to an understanding of brain/behavior relationships. --- Appreciate the neural bases of some neurological and behavioral disorders. Evaluation. Your grade will be a simple average taken from exams. One exam will be dropped from your final grade. Save this for something serious. Do not squander it on procrastination since there will be no makeup exams. An exam missed because of illness, schedule conflict, or any of life's unpredictable events will count as a zero and can be dropped. It is best to predict that the unpredictable event will occur on the day of the last exam. You may study with others for exams (indeed, this is encouraged) but all exams will be taken in class and performed without any assistance from other students or from notes. The academic honesty policies specified in the Tiger Cub apply. Course Structure. The course will be centered around the textbook. Class time will be used partly to cover material from the textbook, especially material that might be difficult to get from the book alone. For this I will need your help in letting me know what parts of the book you find difficult. I also hope to use some class time to provide more depth than provided in the textbook or to discuss a point raised by the authors. Academic Honesty. Cheating is theft and a betrayal of the good-faith required for higher education to function. Cheating will not be tolerated. The policies established in the Tiger Cub will serve as guidelines for dealing with dishonesty. In this course you are encouraged to study together, but all exams must be taken on you own. Schedule: The schedule is on the next page.
General Issues. 1. Dualism, monism, and reduction 2. a. Why ask Why? The multiplicity of satisfactory explanations b.The terrible consequences of not using animals in research Structure. 3. Neurons and Glia 4. The peripheral nervous system 5. The central nervous system 6. a. Neural systems. b. Imaging techniques Evolution and comparative analyses of behavior. 7. Evolution and classification. 8. Invertebrate and vertebrate nervous systems. 9. Encephalization among vertebrates. 10.
Development 11. Six stages of neural development 12. Experimental approaches to development 13. Disruption of development: genes, chemicals, and aging. Neural Conduction. 14. a. Simple principles of electricity b. The resting potential. 15. The action potential, and its ionic basis.. 16. Neurotransmission and the receptor Psychopharmacology 17. Drugs and neurotransmission. 18. a. Behavioral determinants of drug action. b. Lead poisoning and behavioral toxicology 19. Drug abuse: Behavioral and neural mechanisms. 20. Sensory systems: general principles, audition, and chemical senses. 21. Principles of sensory transduction: Transducers, optimal stimuli, receptive fields. 22. Audition: Sound and sound transduction. 23. The auditory and vestibular systems 24. The chemical senses. Sensory systems: Vision. 25. a. Lite light: Brief description of the physical stimulus for vision. b. Structure of the visual system 26. The retina: Photoreception and integration 27. Parallel pathways: Color and movement 28. Movement. 29. The Spinal Reflex. 30. Cerebellum and Basal Ganglia: Orchestration of Motor Outflow. 31. The cortex and descending Motor Pathways. Regulation of internal states. 32. a. Homeostasis and thermoregulation b. The hypothalamus and the four F's.. 33. Drinking and thirst 34. Eating: Starting and stopping. Biological rhythms and sleep. 35. Sleep: Measurement, Characterization, and Stages. 36. Neural Mechanisms of Sleep 37. a. Sleep Disorders b. Pharmacology of Sleep 38. Mental disorders. 39. Schizophrenia 40. Depression and Affective Disorders Learning and memory 41. Human memory and its disorders. 42. Comparative approaches to learning and memory 43. Neural basis of habituation and sensitization 44. Neural basis of associative learning. 45. Long-term potentiation and the neural bases of memory. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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