Marine Biological Laboratory
Woods Hole, MA 02543
(508) 548-3705
contact: Dori Chrysler <dchrysle at mbl.edu>
For other course descriptions at the MBL:
gopher: crane.mbl.edu or...
WWW: http://alopias.mbl.edu/Default.html
------------------------- Neural Systems & Behavior
---------------------------
June 12 - August 5, 1994
For graduate and postdoctoral students as well as established
investigators. Limited to 20 students.
The central theme of the course is the neural bases and ontogeny of
behaviors. Students participate in an intensive laboratory/lecture course
that combines state-of-the-art neurobiological techniques with behavioral
and developmental analyses. Lectures open with a consideration of
physiological and anatomical principles of neuronal function followed by a
discussion of how properties of individual neurons come together in simple
neural networks for such behaviors as locomotion, escape, and the
generation of rhythmic patterns of activity. Modulation of neural activity
and neural circuits by transmitter and hormone action and Long Term
Potentiation in the hippocampus as a model for learning are then covered.
The lecture series then moves on to molecular approaches for the study of
neural development and to the use of in vitro models for the study of
synapse formation. Finally, we consider complex behaviors such as animal
orientation and visual perception. Weekly seminars will be given by
distinguished participants in the ÒScholars-in-ResidenceÓ program.
The focus of the course is the laboratory where advanced techniques in
cellular neurobiology are brought to bear on neural systems that govern
behavioral expression and learning, and the experimental analyses of
developmental systems. Methods taught include intracellular recording,
single cell dye-injection, voltage clamp, analysis of synaptic plasticity,
pathway tracing, immunocytochemistry, tissue culture, patch clamp,
computational approaches to sensory perception, and in situ hybridization
and other molecular techniques, and behavioral techniques for assessing
spatial learning in mammals. A variety of terrestrial and aquatic
vertebrate and invertebrate animals serve as experimental systems.
This course is supported in part by a training grant from the National
Institute of Mental Health, and a grant from the Grass Foundation.
Directors: Ronald Calabrese, Emory University; and Martha
Constantine-Paton, Yale University.
Faculty: Alexander Borst, Max Planck Institute, TŸbingen; Holly Cline,
University of Iowa; Patsy Dickinson, Bowdoin College; Robert Douglas,
University of British Columbia; Richard Levine, University of Arizona;
Christine Li, Boston University; Eduardo Macagno, Columbia University;
Robert Malinow, University of Iowa; P. Meyrand, CNRS, Arcachon; Michael
Nusbaum, University of Pennsylvania; Mu-Ming Poo, Columbia University;
Martin Shankland, Harvard Medical School; Janis Weeks, University of
Oregon; and Angela Wenning, University of Konstanz.
Scholars-in-Residence to be named.
Tuition: $2,750
