Introduction to Neuroscience
Michelle R. Greene
Winter 2019
Instructor: Michelle R. Greene, Ph.D
Email: mgreene2@bates.edu
Office: Hathorn 106
Office hours: MWF: 9:30am - 10:30am Unofficial: I’m happy to meet when office door is open!
Teaching Assistant: Jamie Siegart
Email: jsiegart@bates.edu
Office: TBA
Office hours: TBA
Hours for ARC tutoring
Logistics: 3 lectures a week MWF 11:00-11:55 in Carnegie 113
Thursdays 11:00-11:55 for community-engaged learning (CEL) and exam review
Prerequisites: A desire to work hard and learn!
Course Description
In this course, we will explore how the structure and function of the central and peripheral nervous systems support mind and behavior. Topics introduced include neuroanatomy, developmental neurobiology, neurophysiology, neuropharmacology, and neuropsychiatry. The course is aimed at prospective majors and nonmajors interested in exploring a field in which biology and psychology merge, and to which many other disciplines (e.g., chemistry, philosophy, anthropology, linguistics, computer science) have contributed.
Introduction
Your brain: it has the consistency of toothpaste, weighs about the same as a half gallon of milk, and would be the size of a large pizza if the outside (the cortex) were unwrinkled and flattened out on the table. On the one hand, the brain is just like any other organ in your body - it has ions, amino acids, and peptides that are shuttled around in little fatty globule cases packed with saltwater. But unlike any of your other organs, your brain creates your reality. Everything that makes you YOU: your memories, personality, perceptions, emotions, and talents are all due to this fantastic organ.
The overarching goal of this course is to give you the necessary background to appreciate how you are an “electrochemical meat computer”. To do this, we’ll be looking at the structure and function of the brain itself. We’ll delve into its structure and organization, its microscopic complexity, how it encodes, represents, and reacts to the physical world, and how its cells, systems, and molecules work together to produce states as intangible as hunger, sexual desire, and emotion.
There are more than 1,000 disorders of the brain and nervous system, and they result in more hospitalizations and lost productivity than any other disease group, including heart disease and cancer. In 2007, the World Health Organization estimated that up to one billion people are affected by neurological disorders worldwide, and this is not even including mental health issues or addiction! Here in the United States, neurological illness affects more than 50 million people annually, with another 44 million affected by mental disorders. The economic and emotional costs of these disorders is staggering. This motivates the community-engaged nature of this course. This semester, you will be involved in the creation of educational materials that will help students and families in the Lewiston-Auburn area prevent and live with neurological disease.
No single concept in this course is overwhelmingly difficult, and I truly believe that with the right attitude, and enough time, effort, and patience, all of you will master the concepts in this course. That said, the sheer amount of information can feel overwhelming. But really, why shouldn’t it? Think about the task we’re up against! Trying to understand the brain is a quest only for the intrepid, the eager, and the truly curious.
Learning Objectives
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
Locate, name, and describe the basic functions of major brain regions and systems.
Explain the basics of how neurons fire and communicate with other neurons, including: resting potentials, action potentials, sensory transduction, and receptive field structure.
Describe how neurons and synapses are modified with experience, and how neural activity correlates with aspects of perception and behavior.
Apply neuroscience principles to explain features of basic human behavior including eating, drinking, sleeping, sex, aggression, language, and learning.
Describe what is known about the neural basis of various neurological diseases including: schizophrenia, depression, and addiction, and to identify environmental contexts that have an impact on brain health and function.
Apply course-related knowledge to communicate health-related information to people with diverse backgrounds.
Develop collaborative abilities with those both within and outside of the Bates community.
Reading
Bear, Connors, & Paradiso: Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain 4th Edition. This text is required for the course and is available at the campus bookstore and from online vendors. A copy is also on reserve at Ladd Library.
Policies
Students with Disabilities or Learning Differences
If you have a condition or disability that causes difficulty with learning in the classroom, completing assignments as described, or taking examinations, please notify me as soon as possible. Documentation from the Office of the Dean of Students is needed before accommodations can be made. I am very happy to work with you, but I am unable to make accommodations on short notice.
Commitment to Diversity
In our classroom, it is essential that we build our class community into a place where everyone is entirely comfortable in participating, questioning, and intellectually experimenting without fear of retribution or overly harsh, judgmental, or critical responses.
I expect all students to be respectful of the widely varied experiences and backgrounds represented by the classroom members as a group. Disrespect or discrimination on any basis will not be tolerated. Whether inside or outside the classroom, if you encounter sexual harassment, sexual violence, or discrimination based on race, color, religion, age, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, or disability, you are encouraged to report it to Gwen Lexow, Director of Title IX and Civil Rights Compliance at Bates at glexow@bates.edu or 207-786-6445. Additionally, please remember that Bates faculty are concerned about your well-being and development, and we are available to discuss any concerns you have. Students should be aware that faculty are legally obligated to share disclosures of sexual violence, sexual harassment, relationship violence, and stalking with the college’s Title IX Officer to help ensure that your safety and welfare are being addressed.
Electronics
Please silence your cell phone upon entering class and refrain from using it during class. This is a laptop-free classroom. There are good reasons for this: laptop use is correlated with lower learning outcomes for you and those around you, and the act of taking notes on the laptop is less effective than hand-written notes. The only exceptions are those with documented accommodations from the Dean of Students.
Late work
If your problem sets or reflection paper are late, you will lose 10 percentage points per day on that assignment. In other words, an assignment that would otherwise earn 100% will now be worth 90%. This policy does not apply to a documented personal or family emergency.
Make-up exams will be given only when you have documentation from the Office of the Dean of Students to substantiate your absence for the precise day of the exam (not the days leading up to an exam). Make-up exams may be in the form of short essay, long essay, and/or oral defense, at my discretion.
Regrade requests
I am committed to being as fair and impartial as possible with my grading. If you feel I have graded part of your exam or paper incorrectly, unfairly, or applied different grading standards to you vs. your peers, I would like to know about it. That said, I do not have these conversations over email. If you would like to request a re-grade, you need to come see me during office hours. This must be done within 2 weeks of receiving your graded product.
You should be advised of two things before requesting a re-grade:
I will be re-grading all of your exam, and not just the requested problem. Therefore, your new score may go up, down, or remain the same.
If you are caught altering your graded exam or paper when requesting a regrade (all assignments are photocopied), you will automatically receive a zero for that exam.
As a bit of general advice: I’m not a big fan of “point pigs”. Complaining about grades, or framing your request as an on-the-spot demand for why you lost points on a particular problem will not endear you to me.
Extra credit
I will not be entertaining requests or proposals for extra credit assignments.
Emergencies
If I must cancel class due to weather or an emergency, I will inform you via the class email list. Please consider your Bates email to be the default place to look for class-related information and get into the habit of checking it daily.
A Note on Email
Email is a good servant, but a bad master. As such, I try to limit my use of it to spend more time on the parts of my job that matter: giving you the best class experience possible, and being a great scientist. Statistically speaking, you probably don’t like email much either. Therefore, I process all of my email in one batch once a day. While I will always respond to you in the same day, this means that you may go 23 hours without a response. Need a faster response? Stop by my office - I’m there most of the time! Need to meet with me? Feel free to send me a calendar invite. Here are step-by-step instructions for this.
Academic integrity
Please read Bates College’s policy on academic integrity for students. This guide and its definitions of plagiarism, use/misuse of sources, and cheating may be helpful background. Students’ work will be closely scrutinized for plagiarism and violations of the College policy will not be tolerated. If you are concerned that your collaboration might put you at risk of an academic integrity violation, please come see me during office hours as soon as possible. For those of you who have actually reached this part of the syllabus, please come see me in office hours for five extra credit points.
Grading
Grading Overview
| Product | Grade Percentage |
|---|---|
| 3 Midterms | 42% |
| 1 final exam | 18% |
| Participation | 15% |
| 2 problem sets | 6% |
| CEL project participation | 6% |
| Reflection paper on CEL | 7% |
| Research participation | 6% |
Your final grade will be determined on the following scale:
| Grade | Percentage | Grade | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A+ | >95% | B- | 71-74% | |
| A | 87-94% | C+ | 67-70% | |
| A- | 83-86% | C | 63-66% | |
| B+ | 79-82% | D | 50-62% | |
| B | 75-78% | F | <50 |
Grading Components
Midterms
The three midterms will be given in class, and will include a mix of multiple-choice, fill-in, and short answer questions. I will return the graded exam to you within one week. If you are not happy with your grade, you will have the opportunity to make corrections on the exam to earn back half of the lost points. For example, if you earned a 70 on an exam, you will be able to earn up to an 85 by doing corrections.
Final Exam
The final will be comprehensive, though ~40% percent of the exam will test the most recent material (the 8 lectures from 3/19 to 4/6). The format will be similar to the in-class exams. More details to follow later in the semester. In general, it will be a very good idea to periodically refresh your memory/understanding of earlier material.
Participation
Learning is not a spectator sport, and our class periods will extend rather than regurgitate the readings. Your participation grade will come from your attendance and engagement with class. This will be measured via clicker question responses that will take place over the course of the lecture. Note: you will not be graded on how you respond to these polls, only that you are there and making the effort.
Problem Sets
Two problem sets are graded pass/fail and are intended to give you a snapshot of your neuroscience-related knowledge before and after the course. The first problem set will be due January 11, 2019 at 23:59. The second problem set will be due April 4, 2019 at 23:59.
Community-engaged project participation
In this course, you will be assigned into a group of four students based on your schedule and partnered with a group that does health-related outreach in the Lewiston-Auburn area. You will be assigned to create educational materials for our neighbors that help them to understand aspects of the environment that can impact the brain both positively and negatively. Your participation will be evaluated both by me and your group colleagues. If appropriate, any feedback given to me by our community partners will be taken into consideration.
Reflection paper
At the end of your community-engaged project, you will be required to turn in a 300-500 word reflective paper about your experience with community-engaged work. You may turn this in to me anytime between the end of your project and March 29, 2019 at 23:59. Although the specific content of the paper is up to you, I would like you to also include a reflection of how the material you learned in class related to your project. More details will be made available later in the semester.
Research participation
Participation in research is a valuable way to get first-hand exposure to the variety of research conducted within the Psychology and Neuroscience programs. There will be a number of student and faculty research projects recruiting participants this semester. You are expected to be involved in the equivalent of 2 units worth of participation or do an alternative writing assignment. You only get credit for participating in approved experiments. All eligible experiments are assigned a number and listed on this webpage.
Each experiment has a fixed number of units assigned to it based on the average length of time that it will take to participate. Typically, 1 hour worth of participation is equal to 1 unit, with each quarter hour represented by 0.25 units. Be sure to check the number of units when you sign up for the experiment. To sign up for an experiment, see instructions on the bulletin board in the Psychology Department (3rd floor Pettengill Hall). When you sign up for an experiment, you are making an appointment for which you must show up. Upon completion of the experiment, you will receive a paper receipt of your participation listing the experiment number and the amount of credit you have earned. Save this receipt! Although it is the experimenter’s responsibility to report your participation to the department, this receipt is additional proof of your participation. You may need it to resolve discrepancies if they arise (and there are always several at the end of the semester). Please note that, for online studies in which your participation is entirely Internet-based, you will be prompted to provide your name and my name upon completion of the online study. This information will be recorded separately from your responses (to maintain the confidentiality of your data) and given to me at the end of the semester so that I can verify your participation. If you decide to opt for a writing assignment in lieu of research participation, you must notify me of this decision by 2/15/19 so that you receive instruction on the writing assignment in a timely manner.
Course Calendar
Unit 1: Macro anatomy and physiology
| Date | Topic | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| 01-07 | Introduction and history | Syllabus, Chapter 1 |
| 01-09 | Structure of nervous system | p180-190 |
| 01-10 | Orientation to CEL projects | |
| 01-11 | Nervous system development | p192-203, 208-214 |
| Problem Set 1 due |
Unit 2: Micro anatomy and physiology
| Date | Topic | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| 01-14 | Neurons and glia | p24-33, 39-46, 49, 52-53 |
| 01-16 | Resting potential, part 1 | p56-66 |
| 01-17 | CEL: First group meeting | |
| 01-18 | Resting potential, part 2 | p66-78 |
| 01-21 | MLK DAY: NO CLASS | |
| 01-23 | Action potential | p82-86, 88-92, 94-99 |
| 01-24 | Exam review | |
| 01-25 | Synaptic transmission | p100-101, 103-105, 119-124, 126-130, 132-133, 136-137 |
| 01-28 | Neurotransmitters | p153-169 |
| 01-30 | EXAM 1 |
Unit 3: Inputs and Outputs (Sensory and Motor Systems)
| Date | Topic | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| 01-31 | CEL: TBD | |
| 02-01 | Auditory system | p370-402 |
| 02-04 | Visual system, part 1 | p304-329 |
| 02-06 | Visual system, part 2 | p332-353, 356-366 |
| 02-07 | CEL: Check in | |
| 02-08 | Olfaction and taste | p266-284 |
| 02-11 | Somatic senses | p417-422, 430-442, 448 |
| 02-13 | Motor system: spinal control | p459-481 |
| 02-14 | Review session | |
| 02-15 | Motor systems: brain control | p491-510 |
| 02-18 | WINTER RECESS | |
| 02-20 | WINTER RECESS | |
| 02-21 | WINTER RECESS | |
| 02-22 | WINTER RECESS | |
| 02-25 | Eating and drinking, part 1 | p552-566 |
Unit 4: Behavioral Neuroscience
| Date | Topic | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| 02-27 | EXAM 2 | |
| 02-28 | CEL: Media Services | |
| 03-01 | Eating and drinking, part 2 | p566-574 |
| 03-04 | Sleep, part 1 | p646-673 |
| 03-06 | Sleep, part 2 | p673-682 |
| 03-07 | CEL: Draft of CEL project due | |
| 03-08 | Sex, gender, and reproduction | p580-594 |
| 03-11 | Drugs and addiction | p568-570, 546-548 |
| 03-13 | Emotion | p626-642 |
| 03-14 | Review Session | |
| 03-15 | Consciousness | p742-749 |
| 03-18 | EXAM 3 |
Unit 5: Learning and Memory
| Date | Topic | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| 03-20 | Attention | p720-734 |
| 03-21 | CEL: Peer review | |
| 03-22 | Memory, part 1 | p824-858 |
| 03-25 | Memory, part 2 | Chapter 25 |
| 03-27 | Learning and plasticity | p805-819 |
| 03-28 | CEL: Final Presentations and Reflection | |
| 03-29 | Language | p686-706 |
| CEL paper due |
Unit 6: Order and Disorder
| Date | Topic | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| 04-01 | Brain disorders, part 1 | p752-771 |
| 04-03 | Brain disorders, part 2 | p771-779 |
| 04-04 | Final Exam Review | Problem Set 2 Due |
| 04-05 | Mythbusting Neuroscience | |
| 04-12 | FINAL EXAM 10:30-12:30 |