Faculty of Arts & Sciences

This course is taken to obtain credit for independent laboratory research during the 6th, 7th, or 8th semester. Research work should be directed by a member of the Neurobiology concentration standing committee or an appropriate Harvard affiliated faculty member in another department or institution. All students must submit registration materials for Neurobiology 98r at the time of enrollment.

For honors candidates writing a thesis in Neurobiology. This course is ordinarily taken in the last semester of enrollment. The Head Tutor must approve a thesis proposal prior to enrolling in Neurobiology 99.

Recent advances have elucidated new non-traditional molecular signaling pathways involved in many disorders and diseases in the CNS. This tutorial will focus on examining novel therapeutics and 'outside the box' approaches to treat CNS disorders: Alzheimer's, Autism, Schizophrenia, Traumatic Injury and Multiple Sclerosis. To do this, we will examine primary and clinical literature and explore drug design strategies.

Phase I: Instructor's lectures with open discussion will orient students to tools from multiple traditional disciplines (behavioral neuroscience, pharmacology, neuroanatomy, and psychiatry). Phase II: Instructor's lectures on important and controversial disease states (Parkinson's Disease, Schizophrenia, Drug Addiction). Phase III: Instructor assigns original articles for Socratic debate. Overall emphasis is on how the brain creates behavior via neurotransmitters and circuits.

The derivation of stem cells from a human embryo ten years ago ignited an explosion of scientific and public interest. This seminar will explore the current understanding of neural stem cells as it relates to their role in physiological and pathological states in developing and adult animals. We will also explore the generation, characterization, and manipulation of neural stem cells in current research.

Neuronal connectivity underlies brain function. This seminar focuses on discussing and debating research related to how synaptic connections are influenced by genes, the environment, and chance to generate functional circuits and accommodate learning. In particular we will discuss molecular mechanisms, activity patterns (spontaneous and experience-evoked), and organizational rules implicated in synaptic formation and refinement in the context of many regions within the nervous system (retina, olfactory bulb, cortex, autonomic, and neuromuscular system).

Time critically shapes our perceptual experience, yet how the brain represents time is poorly understood. This course investigates the experience of time from multiple perspectives, focusing on a systems-level analysis of visual time perception. Topics include illusions of time, neuronal mechanisms of time, the meaning of timescales, models of time perception, and the influence of expectation on brain activity.

Students will examine primary literature to understand the acute and chronic action of drugs of abuse, including opioids, cannabinoids, psychostimulants, nicotine, and ethanol. The course will introduce the models of addiction and examine animal and human research results to build an understanding of how modifications to molecular signaling, cells and neural circuits underlie the development of the addicted brain.

"Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances." - Maya Angelou. The brain, too, dances. Its rhythms are the result of millions of neurons coordinating each other's activity. This course will explore how these rhythms are generated, how they relate to our perception and cognition, and how they can be used to better understand and diagnose psychiatric and neurological disorders.

The synapse is a fundamental information-processing unit of the nervous system. In this course, we will first explore the biology of excitatory and inhibitory synapses, developmental origins of neuronal subtypes and mechanisms that govern their circuit integration. Then we will address the basic design principles, wiring and functional plasticity of neuronal circuits that are altered in a plethora of neuropsychiatric disorders. We will also discuss how this knowledge can be used to better understand, diagnose and design therapeutics for neuropsychiatric disorders.

The brain is an extremely complex computing device. Computational neuroscience seeks to understand brain function by constructing mathematical models of the nervous system to summarize our knowledge and gain new insights into how neurons perform basic tasks, e.g., encode stimuli, form memories, or generate movements. This course presents computational techniques for investigating, modeling, and understanding the function of neurons, neuronal networks, and systems.