This course will be held from May 6th to 10th, 2019* [09:00-13:00 / 14:00-18:00]. Click here to download the programme.
NEUROPHYSIOLOGY |
BEHAVIOUR |
Session 1 - Introduction to neurophysiology - What is “special” about neurons and the nervous system? Evolutionary considerations on the function and modes of communication of the nervous system. - What is neurophysiology and what tools do we use to study it? - Why so many tools? Levels of analysis and scales in the nervous system. - One neuron. Things they don’t tell you about spikes. - Two neurons. Things they don’t tell you about synapses. - Many neurons. Things they don’t tell you about extracellular recordings. - Wrap-up: where we are in neuroscience, and why we’ll need micropipettes and electrodes for decades to come. |
Session 1 - Introduction to data acquisition and behavioural control - How to measure almost anything with a computer. From quantities to bytes. - How to control almost anything with a computer. From bytes to effects. - What is a programming language, and why should you care? Introduction to Bonsai. - How to measure and control multiple things at the same time with one computer. - The impact of measurement and control technologies in the study of behaviour: past, present, and future. |
Session 2 - Neural electricity - Membranes, why they matter, and what’s on them. - Between -50 and -80 mV: where does the resting membrane potential come from? Equilibrium potentials, driving forces, Nernst and GHK equations. - From -65 to +40 mV: ligand- and voltage-gated channels and the spike. - From +40 to infinity: active and passive properties as functional-molecular fingerprints of neurons. - Wrap-up: thinking of currents as if/while statements and simple lines of code. |
Session 2 - Cameras, tracking and microcontrollers - Measuring behavior using video. From photons to pixels. - Recording real-time video from multiple cameras. - Real-time tracking of colored objects, moving objects and contrasting objects: the basic toolkit. - Measuring behavior using voltages and an Arduino. - A primer on data synchronization: on what frame did the light turn on? |
Session 3 - Recording from neurons with patch-clamp - If you like it, then you should’ve put a seal on it: the art and science of patch-clamping. - The whole-cell patch-clamp experiment: leaks, access resistance, capacitance. - From whole-cell to cell-attached to extracellular - the same principles hold along a continuum of approaches. - Current- and Voltage-clamp: when and why? - Wrap-up: Limitations of patch-clamp: space-clamp and dendritic filtering. |
Session 3 - Real-time closed-loop experimentation - What can we learn from closed-loop experiments? - Conditional effects. Triggering a stimulus based on video activity. - Continuous feedback. Modulate stimulus intensity with speed or distance. - Feedback stabilization. Record video centered around a moving object. - Measuring closed-loop latency. |
Session 4 - The Big Picture: what is the point of all this? Examples of practical applications. - Exploiting equilibrium potentials: uncaging, intracellular solutions and distinguishing glutamate from GABA. - Neurons do more than integrate and fire: burst and tonic firing modes in thalamic relay neurons. - A safari of GABAergic interneurons: how active and passive properties relate to function in the nervous system. |
Session 4 - Operant behavior tasks - Modeling trial sequences: state machines and events. - Driving state transitions with external inputs. - Choice, timeouts and conditional logic: the basic building blocks of reaction time, Go/No-Go and 2AFC tasks. - Combining real-time and non real-time logic for good measure. - Student project brainstorming |
Session 5 - Acute Slice Physiology practical demonstration and experiments - How to prepare acute slices - Whole-cell current clamp recordings - Whole-cell voltage-clamp recordings - Loose-seal recordings - Extracellular recordings - Optogenetic stimulation - Basic analysis: event detection and feature extraction |
Session 5 - Final projects - Custom behavior tracking - Interactive visual stimulation - Audio acquisition and stimulation - Student project preparation and presentation |
*For the students enrolled in the MSc and PhD programs of the School of Medicine, the course will have 2 mandatory additional weeks (April 29 - May 3 and May 13-17, 2019).