INSC 593 Structural Neuroscience
INSC 593 Structural Neuroscience 2008
COURSE GOALS
Course Director: Peter B. Crino M.D., Ph.D.
1) Learn the basic structural features of the vertebrate brain at several levels of scale: macroscopic (gross = major subdivisions, major connecting tracts) and microscopic (histological organization of some regions of major current interest, e.g., hippocampus).
2) Learn to find your way around the brain using the various available maps (atlases) at the corresponding levels of scale: (MRI, light microscope). This gets easy as you accomplish goal #1.
3) Become proficient with light microscopy. LM is now a major tool, not only for structure, but also for studies of function. In fact, such distinctions are rapidly disappearing. Proficiency requires that you: a) understand certain technical issues that allow obtain optimal contrast and resolution; b) learn to "look" actively – by asking a few basic questions as you examine a tissue. This is also learning "to find your way". In short, you should gain a certain competence in neuroanatomy (at all 3 scales), and equally some competence as an investigator of "functional architecture".
4) Become proficient in brain dissection and identification of structures.
5) Consider how to investigate the brain with structural and function/structural methods (optical signals at various spatial and temporal scales). At the end of the course you will be able visually conceptualize brain anatomy in terms of connections and structure function relationships.
PLAN The course will include a series of lectures approximately one hour is length followed by discussion and questions and then is some cases a lab. You should take notes! Then, practical experience visually inspecting select brain regions covered in the lecture will follow. Microscope slides to inspect select regions of the brain will be provided. There will be several in-class dissections of tissue specimens including a sheep and human brain.
HOMEWORK will consist of a modest reading (a textbook chapter and/or a short original paper) plus some work in the laboratory. Each student will be expected to give a 30 minute talk on a selected topic relating to structure function issues in the brain.
CLASS The goal of the course will be to orient you to the structure-function relationships that is central to brain function. You can see that this is not traditional “neuroanatomy”. While you will need to learn select pathways in the mammalian brain, you will not be memorizing every tract and nucleus. The neuroscientist’s task is to locate the critical sites of computation and figure out how they work. So we will pay less attention to the names of the parts and more to what we can observe about their design.
There will be time in each class for discussion of each topic and to go over homework assignments.
NOTEBOOK To develop your powers of observing and a habit of recording observations, you will keep a lab notebook. Each entry should be dated. You should make sketches, estimate sizes, numbers, record calibrations, record your questions, hypotheses. If you find answers, note them. For example, when you study a slide at successively higher magnifications, sketch key elements identified and those not - write down the questions you want to ask in class. The goal is not to be voluminous or artistic, but to learn to observe more carefully and in more detail, and to learn to document as you go; to learn to articulate what you see. We expect entries for every session - homework and class. If you fall behind and do something out of order, that's fine - but enter it in your notebook in the order it was done, with the actual date. If you make notes on a different sheet of paper, staple it in. Don't make it pretty, make it complete. A scientist does not lose his/her notebook! It is a disaster! The notebook will be collected at the end of the semester and will contribute to the grade evaluation.
EVALUATION (1) There will be two exams (midterm and final) that will consist of written and practical components. These will be based on the laboratory work, lectures, and reading; aspects related to all 3 course goals will be covered. (2) We will also review the lab notebook to see your continuity of effort and progress. (3) Class participation including your 30 minute talks will contribute to the final grade. We will look in class for evidence of active engagement with the material, e.g., asking questions that arise from your observations and reading (rather than from simple lack of preparation). There will be a roughly equal split between the midterm and final exams, the lab notebook, and class participation in the assessment of your final class grade.
Course Director: Peter Crino M.D., Ph.D.
T.A. Matt Bevers
1/22 Course overview
1/24 Overview of CNS
1/31 Cerebral Cortex (Crino)
2/5 Cerebral Cortex (Crino)
2/7 Cerebral Cortex (Crino)
2/12 CLASS CANCELLED
2/14 Limbic System (Crino)
2/19 Thalamus
2/21 Thalamus (D. Contreras)
2/26 Light Microscope (P. Haydon)
2/28 Confocal Microscope (P.Haydon)
3/3 Development
3/4 Brain Development (J. Golden)
3/10 Basal Ganglia (D. Lynch)
3/12 Review
3/17 MID-TERM EXAM
3/9 Cerebellum
3/24 Cerebellum
3/26 Myelin and Schwann cells (Steve Scherer)
3/31 NO CLASS
4/1 Sheep brain Dissection
4/3 Sheep brain Dissection
4/8 Human Brain Dissection
4/10 Human Brain Dissection
4/15 Neuromuscular Junction (R. Balice-Gordon)
4/17 Hypothalamus (Lori Flanagan-Cato)
4/22 Spinal Cord Spinal Cord
4/24 Spinal Cord
4/29 Cerebral Circulation
4/24 FINAL EXAM