COURSE OBJECTIVE:
Objective of the course is to enable students to understand development, structure and function of the mammalian nervous system, with special emphasis on typically human functions.
COURSE CONTENT:
LECTURES
1) Communication between the neurons: structure of a neuron; electrical signaling; chemical signaling; types of neurotransmitters;
2) Structural and functional organization of the nervous system; Autonomous nervous system;
3) Prenatal and postnatal brain development; Evolution of brain and behavior; Brain ageing;
4) Reception of internal and external stimuli: mechanism of transduction; transforming the receptor potential into action potential; dynamic range of the receptor; receptor adaptation;
5) Audition: sound components and their perception; ear structure; auditory pathways; auditory cortex; speech and language; perception of music;
6) Vision, Gustation and Olfaction: components of picture and their perception; eye structure; visual pathways; visual cortex; olfactory and gustatory receptors, pathways and cortices;
7) Movement: reflexes and voluntary movements, motor cortex; somatosensory system and its role in movement; regeneration of the peripheral and central nervous systems;
8) Homeostatic mechanisms: autonomous nervous system; enteric nervous system, endocrine system;
9) Biological Rhythms: types of biological rhythms; molecular regulation of biological rhythms; pineal gland; physiological roles of sleep; sleep stages and brain waves; neural basis of sleep; sleep disorders;
10) Learning and memory: classifications of memory; neural circuits involved in explicit, implicit and emotional memory; brain plasticity; synaptic plasticity;
11) Cognition: aspects of cognition and brain regions involved in their control; brain asymmetry; variations in structural and functional organization of the brain; intelligence; consciousness;
12) Motivational mechanisms: causes of behavior; motivated behavior; neural regulation of behavior; hormonal regulation of behavior; emotions; examples of regulatory and non-regulatory behavior;
13) Disorders of the nervous system: neurological and behavioral disorders; neurobiological and molecular basis of the nervous system disorders; personality and its disorders;
14) Pharmacology of the nervous system: drug routes into the nervous system; agonists and antagonists of neurotransmission; molecular mechanisms of action of the psychotropic agents; tolerance, sensitization, dependence and neurotoxicity.
LABORATORY EXERCISES:
1) Nervous system: Interactive 3D display of the human central nervous system on the computer; Observing the animal nervous system preparations under a light microscope;
2) Brain: Isolation and section of the rat brain; preparation of the brain tissue for molecular analyses;
3.) Autonomous nervous system: Recording of autonomous reactions as a result of emotional reactions on the Biopac system;
4) Autonomous nervous system: Analysis and interpretation of the results;
5) Hearing: Visualization of sound and testing of its aspects with the computer program Visual Analyzer
6) Vision, smell and taste: Testing of the various aspects of the sensory perception using simple procedures (e.g. spatial organization of the taste receptors; the role of olfaction in taste determination; identification of a blind spot in a visual field, etc.);
7) Somatosensory system: Examining the function of haptic and termoreceptors, and the role of proprioreceptors in balance and movement;
8) Learning and memory: Examining various types of learning and memory by solving verbal and spatial tasks;
9)Fly School I: Connecting gene mutations with changes in learning and memory via interactive computer simulation Fly school, writing of laboratory report
10) Fly School II: individual writing of lab report;
11) Fly School III: joint analysis of the results, discussion and conclusions;
12) Pharmacology of the nervous system: Identification of the brain target regions and molecular mechanisms of the psychotropic drug action via interactive computer simulation Mouse party.
SEMINARS:
1) Mechanisms of stress resilience;
2) Molecular and cellular brain ageing;
3) Evolution of language;
4) Synesthesia;
5) Treatment of CNS-a with stem cells;
6) Consequences of sleep deprivation;
7) The effects of music on brain development and plasticity;
8) Gender differences in cognition;
9) Neurobiological basis of sexual orientation;
10) Neurobiology of social behavior;
11) Personality and its disorders;
12) Molecular mechanisms of addiction;
13) Round table on the chosen topic;
14) Pub quiz.
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An Introduction to Brain and Behavior, 5th ed., Kolb B, Whishaw IQ, Campbell Teskey G, Worth Publishers, New York., 2016.
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