CELLULAR
NEUROSCIENCE (Psychology 120/Biology
153) [last edited 10/4/2011]
Tuesday-Thursday1:15-2:30
Room
041,
Jordan Hall
Scope of course
The course is designed to provide a foundation
needed for the eventual understanding of the neural basis of
behavior and cognition. We will consider data and theories of
brain-behavior relationships from research in the neurosciences.
Progress in neuroscience requires a detailed knowledge of brain
function and so cuts across areas such as neurophysiology,
neuroanatomy, and neurochemistry. In the first part of the course we
will take a reductionistic approach and focus on the basic element
of nervous systems -- the neuron. The objective is to understand the
signaling capacities of neurons in terms of cellular mechanisms. In
the second part of the course we will take a more integrative
approach and consider how we might understand how simple sensory,
motor, and learning capacities arise from the operations of
neural networks. We will also consider how hormonal and neural
elements interact to produce motivation and emotions.
The course emphasizes fundamentals. It
should give you a solid grounding in the basic operating principles
of neural tissue, and let you progress with confidence to more
advanced courses. This is not a survey course, although we will
touch at least briefly on many areas of current research.
Staff
...........*** ...........***Head Teaching
Assistants. Office hours other than shown can be arranged
by appointment.
Discussion sections
The twice-weekly discussion sections have been discontinued. To
replace these, you are encouraged to visit the course assistants
during their office hours or by appointment. You are also
encouraged to ask questions via email (see email addresses under Staff). Questions and answers (without
identifying the questioner) will be posted on the Web so that all
students can have the benefit of the exchange.
Background section
An extensive handout for the background section is on the web.
After you have enrolled in the course, you can get to that material
by clicking here.
Mechanics of the course
Illustrated lectures. A given topic will be covered by both lectures
and readings, but the way in which the material is presented will
usually differ somewhat. Different perspectives should make
new ideas easier to assimilate. As the course progresses, some
topics will be covered only by readings or lectures. That will allow
us to cover more ground with only minor loss in depth of
understanding. Lecture notes (unfortunately without most of
the visual material) will be available on the web.
Grading.
Grading is based on one midterm and a
final exam. The midterm counts for ~1/3 of your grade, the final
~2/3. The final will cover the entire course. Exams are multiple
choice and short essay. Course grading will
conform to the norm in many Stanford courses. Students who are
on the distribution, and this is expected to be all students who
devote appropriate attention to the assignments, will receive an A
or B, with an approximate division of 1/3 and 2/3. There is
one rigid part to this course: the
final exam is only given at the time and date assigned by the
university. No exceptions are made to this policy, so if you
don't want to take the exam at the assigned time for some reason
(for example, because you have two other exams the same day),
please do not take the course.
Text: Eric
R. Kandel, James H. Schwartz, Thomas M. Jessell:
Principles of Neural Science, 4th edition (McGraw-Hill)
This is a large, comprehensive text appropriate for
a full-year course. Of the 63 chapters, only 19 are assigned
reading for this course. However, the text costs little more
than diluted versions, and can serve as a rich resource for
students who have more than a passing interest in neuroscience.
The chapters and parts of chapters to be read are listed in the
schedule (these can change, so use the web rather than a printed
version) and additional guidance will be given as we
proceed. Chapter numbers in parentheses means you should
'read lightly' as opposed to studying the chapter. Usually a
good method is to start is to read the section headings, and the
opening paragraph; also look at the figures and read the figure
captions. If you read something that is also covered or
referred to in lecture, that part should be read more
carefully. If you read something that you find interesting,
you might guess that your instructors find it interesting too,
although this is not a certain guide.
Recommendation letters
Students who do well in the class often request
letters of recommendation. I am happy to write letters, but I
only do so in August of each year, so you should plan
accordingly. Instructions
can be found on my teaching page.
Website
The website provides you flexibility in reviewing notes and keeping
track of what is going on in the course. A great advantage of
the web is that links provide a convenient method to move around on
a site and to switch among related topics. Attempts in the
past to incorporate these webpages with CourseWorks have created
unacceptable problems, which is why they are still independent.
The lectures are password protected. You will be given a
password in class. Passwords are a source of frustration for
everyone, and I would like to eliminate them. However, for a
variety of reasons it isn't yet practical to do that.
In the event of an earthquake during class
Palo Alto is Earthquake country. In the
event of an earthquake, you should immediately take
cover as best as possible in the auditorium. Make sure
that your head and neck are below the level of the seat
backs. Brace yourself, and wait for the shaking to
cease. After the earthquake has stopped, remain calm and
listen to your instructor and teaching assistants for
instructions. In an orderly manner, you will be evacuating
the building and moving to the Emergency Assembly Point in the
Oval on the north side of Jordan
Hall. Be prepared to assist others who may be injured or
need help, and expect aftershocks.
Spend a moment right now determining good places
to take cover, and think about several ways in which you might
exit the building should an earthquake occur. It is also a
good idea to locate the closest fire extinguisher and first aid
kit. If you have a disability or for any reason might
require extra assistance in the event of an earthquake, please
let the instructor know so that your needs can be taken into
account in our preparations for emergencies. You are
encouraged to review
the Stanford
University
Environmental Health and Safety Web Site for more
information. If you have further questions about
earthquake safety, please don't hesitate to ask your instructor.
If you have trouble viewing web pages try Firefox,
which is the browser I use.
Each lecture except the introductory lecture is preceded by an outline.
By
clicking
on either the outline topic or the pebble in front of it, you can
jump to that section of the lecture: use the back button on your
browser to return to the index. There is also a search
function on the course outline page that will list all pages
that contain the term you are trying to find.
Links also allow you to pursue a topic in greater depth by
providing instant access to supplementary material and original
articles. However, that immediately raises the perennial
question: "What are we required to know for the exam?" When
a link takes you to material that could be covered on the exam, it
will be followed by the sign [required].
However, I hope you find that many of the non-required links take
you to material that is useful and interesting. In many
cases, pursuing those links will increase your understanding of
the required material. Links are hidden all over the place
in these pages. For example, in this page the pebbles in the
outline are links.
Another advantage of the web is that it makes it easy to revise
the material, but that again poses a problem. Each page has
a date indicating when it was last edited. Make sure you are
using the latest version of the web page when you are
studying. To prevent chaos, I stop posting updates to a
given page on the day after the lecture that corresponds to that
page. However, updates posted that late will usually be to
correct errors. If there must be an occasional exception to
that rule we will call it to your attention.
Please let me know (wine@stanford.edu)
about any problems with the pages. A major problem of which
we are fully aware is the lack of graphics in many pages, and the
poor quality of some of the graphics we do have.
Scope
of
course