SDSU Systems Neuroscience

SPRING 2022 (go here for current/latest version)


Professor:
Marty Sereno — email: msereno - AT - sdsu
lecture recording times: Mon/Wed/Fri 9:00-9:50 AM (optional: Fri 8:00-8:50 AM)
lecture recording location: SSW 2667 (Learning Glass Studio, Student Services West)
All lectures recorded to Mediasite (first week also on zoom, link on canvas homepage)

Resources:
Learning Glass lecture recordings
Neuroscience papers (background reading)
Sereno lecture notes (rough draft!) (168-page PDF [28MB] last update: 05 Mar 2021)
Neuroscience reference texts (not required):
    Squire, Berg et al., eds. (2008/2013) Fundamental Neuroscience, 3rd/4th ed.
    Kandel, Jessell, Schwartz, eds. (2008/2012) Principles of Neural Science, 5th/6th ed.
    Nieuwenhuys, Voogd, van Huijzen (2008) The Human Central Nervous System, 4th ed.
Neuroscience ugrad textbooks:
    Nicholls et al. (2012) From Neuron to Brain, 5th ed.
    Bear, Connors, and Paradiso (2006/2015) Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain, 3rd/4th ed.

Exams:
multiple question short-answer, each question with a few subsections, examples given in lecture
2 midterms, final (midterms: 24% each, final: 32%), and short final paper (20%)
old pdf answer keys from my similar UCSD Systems Neuroscience course (2007) here and here

Learning Objectives:
Students will be able to do the following:
    (1) explain neuronal electrochemistry, development, evolution, relate to dendritic/Hebbian/attractor models
    (2) diagram neuroanatomical structures/connections low to high level in visual, somatosensory, auditory systems
    (3) analyze sequential processing stages in visual, somatosensory, and auditory systems from signals and systems view
    (4) diagram structures/connections in superior colliculus, cerebellum, striatum, motor cortex, and limbic system
    (5) describe neural models of eye movement planning, hierarchical motor control, organization of position/orientation
N.B.: consult with me if a disability hinders your performance so we can use University resources to maximize learning

Lecture Topics — Spring 2022 (1-page syllabus: pdf)

Week of Jan 17 (Wed/Fri - First class Jan 19)Introduction

[no class Mon]
introduction to course, folk theory of brain function
resting/Nernst/reversal potential
[no grad lecture]


Week of Jan 24 (Mon/Wed/Fri)Cellular Physiology

action potential, voltage-gated channels
voltage-sensitive dendritic currents, bursting
neurotrans.-gated post-synaptic potentials, NMDA, LTP/STDP
grad lecture: Hodgkin-Huxley, integrate-and-fire models


Week of Jan 31 (Mon/Wed/Fri)Relation to Neural Models

current flow in dendrites, equivalent circuits
simple Hebbian network model of orientation selectivity
simple attractor network model, energy analysis
grad lecture: covariance/eigenvector analysis of Hebbian learning


Week of Feb 07 (Mon/Wed/Fri)Neural Development

blastula, gastrula, neural plate, neural tube, optic cup
cylindrical coord system, temporal lobe formation, 'rule of Sereno'
later development, cortical subplate, gyrification
[no grad lecture]


Week of Feb 14 (Mon/Wed/Fri)Visual System I

retinal circuitry, origin of processing streams
retina to dLGN as a conformal map, layers
visual cortical maps: V1, V2, MT and the rest
grad lecture: cortical area development, achiasmatic sheepdog


Week of Feb 21 (Mon/Wed/Fri)Visual System II

cortical layer scheme, edges/brightness/motion in V1
V2 compartments, simple/complex/hypercomplex, 1st midterm review
1st Midterm Exam — Fri, Feb 25


Week of Feb 28 (Mon/Wed/Fri)Visual System III

Gabor filter model, aperture problems for color, pattern translation
aperture problem for complex motion, position invariance, contour analog
cortical-wide mechanisms of visual attention
grad lecture: explicit V1-to-MT model, Horn and Schunck


Week of Mar 07 (Mon/Wed/Fri)Somatosensory System

somatosensory receptor types, spinal cord
arm muscle diagram, ascending pathways: dorsal column, spinothalamic
somatosensory cortical areas, discontinuities, plasticity
grad lecture: smoothness constraint, line processes, stereo


Week of Mar 14 (Mon/Wed)Auditory System I

hair cell receptors, lateral line, electric fish
cochlear structure/transduction, 1D vs. 2D maps, mammalian brainstem
[no classes Fri]

Week of Mar 21 (Mon/Wed/Fri)Auditory System II

cochlear nuclei responses, auditory streams
nucleus laminaris coincidence detection
construction of the owl space map
grad lecture: auditory thalamus, cortex, freq vs. pitch


Week of Mar 28SPRING BREAK

[no class Mon]
[no class Wed]
[no class Fri]


Week of Apr 04 (Mon/Wed/Fri)Motor System I

bat echolocation and speech sound processing
gaze stabilization (VOR, OKN, pursuit)
superior colliculus retinal and motor maps, double-step remapping
grad lecture: bat FM, phonetics, auditory attention


Week of Apr 11 (Mon/Wed/Fri)Motor System II

multisensory map alignment: superior colliculus, VIP, LIP
motor system overview, spinal/brainstem pattern generators
motor cortex, 2nd midterm review
grad lecture: spatial->temp and temp->spatial, WTA, human VIP


Week of Apr 18 (Mon/Wed/Fri)Motor System III

2nd Midterm Exam — Mon, Apr 18
cerebellum: connections, microanatomy, learning
striatum: connectional/functional overview, hierarchical sequencing
grad lecture: origin of language I: vocal learning


Week of Apr 25 (Mon/Wed/Fri)Limbic System

connectional overview limbic system
hippocampus: H.M./intermediate term memory vs. inertial guidance
head direction and grid cells, attractor models
grad lecture: origin of language II: language and scenes


Week of May 02 (Mon/Wed)Neuroimaging MRI/EEG/MEG

source of EEG/MEG, MRI hardware, spin vs. precession, Bloch equation
Fourier transform, relation to MRI image formation
[TBA] course review


Mon, May 09, 8-10 AMFinal Exam

Final Exam
Graduate students: final paper due May 13



last modified: Jun 01, 2022
Scanned/video'd class notes (pdf, links above) © 2022 Martin I. Sereno
Supported by NSF 0224321, NIH MH081990, Royal Society Wolfson