Neuroscience Graduate Program

• Course organization, Neurons and electrical signaling

Nicholls: 3-22

• Ion channels

Web Links: 
- Erwin Neher & Bert Sakmann 
- Roderick MacKinnon - Nobel lecture 2003

Nicholls: 63-97

• Resting Membrane Potential

Web Links:

- Julius Bernstein: pioneer neurobiologist and biophysicist

Nicholls: 99-111, 143-147

• Action potentials

Web Links: 
  - Bernstein's differential rheotome - 3D rotatable image 
  - Alan Hodgkin & Andrew Huxley
  - Alan Hodgkin's obituary 1998
  - Andrew Huxley - 2007 interview (YouTube) 
  - Reconstruction of the action potential
   - The Brunsviga 20 mechanical calculator 
  - Tetrodotoxin - pufferfish venom
  -  Hodgkin-Huxley model implemented in MS Excel (downloadable)-
   - The Hodgkin-Huxley Model (explained clearly by W.J. Heitler of Univ. of St. Andrews)

Nicholls: 113-128

• Neurons as conductors of electricity

Take Home Exam 1 available on iLearn Oct 17.  Turn in by Oct 22.

Nicholls: 129-141

• Neuroglia

Nicholls: 159-180

• Synaptic transmission I:

  - electrical and "direct" (ionotropic) chemical transmission

Nicholls: 185-210

• Synaptic transmission II:

- "indirect" (metabotropic) chemical transmission & neuromodulation 

Web Links: 
- Alfred Gilman & Martin Rodbell

Nicholls: 213-240

• Synaptic transmission III:

    - mechanisms of transmitter release 

Web Links: 
    - Presynaptic proteins, synaptic vesicle docking & membrane fusion

    - Bernard Katz, Nobel Prize Lecture (Nobel Prize site)

    - Bernard Katz 2003 obituary

Take Home Exam 2 available on iLearn Nov 14.  Turn in by Nov 19.

Nicholls: 243-271

• Sensory receptors and transduction I:

    - overview & mechanoreceptors 

Web Links: 
  - Georg von Békésy - Nobel Prize award ceremony speech

  - 2018 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience: A conversation with Robert Fettiplace, James Hudspeth and Chritine Petit

Nicholls: 385-397, 433-436, 453-464

• Sensory receptors and transduction II:

    - chemoreceptors, thermoreceptors & nociceptors 

Web Links: 
   - Our Chemical Senses: Olfaction

   - Our Chemical Senses: Taste

    - Taste (Brainfacts.org)

TERM PAPER DUE

Nicholls: 397-404

• Sensory receptors and transduction III:

    - photoreceptors & retinal signaling 

Web Links: 
 - Ragnar Granit, H.K. Hartline & George Wald

 - Light and Time: The Discovery of a New Photoreceptor System within the Eye (Brainfacts.org)

 - A retinal implant that is more effective against blindness 2018

Take Home Exam 3 available on iLearn Dec 5.  Turn in by Dec 10 (Tues of Finals Week, by 5 pm).

Nicholls: 407-430