Neural Science Core Curriculum: The Center for Neural Science offers a two-semester core curriculum to be taken by all Ph.D. candidates, ordinarily during the first year. Included are four courses that meet twice a week for two-hour lectures by Center for Neural Science faculty: Cellular, Molecular, and Developmental Neuroscience (G80.2201); Sensory and Motor Systems (G80.2202); Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience (G80.2205); and Mathematical Tools for Neural Science (G80.2207). In addition, the core curriculum includes Laboratory in Neural Science I, II (G80.2203, 2204), a weekly six-hour teaching laboratory that introduces students to modern research techniques in neuroscience; Introduction to Research I, II (G80.2210, 2211), six-month rotations through the Center for Neural Science faculty laboratories; and Seminar in Current Topics (G80.3390, 3391), a weekly one-hour research colloquium, given usually by outside speakers.

Other Courses: The remaining course requirements are satisfied by taking doctoral-level courses in neural science or in one or more of the departments cooperating with the Center: biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, physics, and psychology. In general, any suitable graduate course approved by a student’s advisory committee is acceptable. At least 37 points must be in graded courses.

Two-part courses: A hyphen indicates a full-year course with credit granted only for completing both terms. A comma indicates credit is granted for completing each term.

CENTER FOR NEURAL SCIENCE

Cellular, Molecular, and Developmental Neuroscience
G80.2201  Identical to G89.2201. Open to doctoral candidates in fields relevant to neural science. Sanes, staff. 4 points.
Team-taught, intensive course. Lectures and readings cover basic biophysics and cellular, molecular, and developmental neuroscience.

Sensory and Motor Systems
G80.2202  Identical to G89.2202. Open to doctoral candidates in fields relevant to neural science. Heeger, staff. 4 points.
Team-taught intensive course. Lectures and readings concentrate on neural regulation of sensory and motor systems.

Laboratory in Neural Science I, II
G80.2203, 2204  Open to doctoral candidates in fields relevant to neural science. Corequisites: G80.2201, G80.2202. Staff. 3 points per term.
Team-taught, state-of-the-art teaching laboratory in neural science. The first semester includes histology and cellular and molecular neuroscience. The second semester includes neuroanatomy, sensory neurophysiology, modern neuroanatomical tracer techniques, psychophysics, and computational neuroscience.

Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience
G80.2205  Identical to G89.2221. Open to doctoral candidates in fields relevant to neural science. Curtis, Suzuki, staff. 4 points.
Team-taught intensive course. Lectures, readings, and laboratory exercises cover neuroanatomy, cognitive neuroscience, learning, memory, and emotion.

Mathematical Tools for Neuroscience
G80.2207  Open to doctoral candidates in fields relevant to neural science. Prerequisites: undergraduate calculus and some programming experience. Simoncelli, staff. 4 points.
Team-taught intensive course. Lectures, readings, and laboratory exercises cover basic mathematical techniques for analysis and modeling of neural systems. Homework sets are based on the MATLAB software package.

Introduction to Research in Neural Science I, II
G80.2210, 2211  Open only to doctoral candidates in neural science. 3 points per term.
Research component of the first-year core curriculum in neural science. Students participate in the research activities in several different laboratories to learn current questions and techniques in neuroscience. Performance is evaluated on the basis of learning the literature and proficiency in laboratory techniques, based on oral and/or written presentations with the laboratory group.

Developmental Neurobiology
G80.2221  Identical to G23.2221. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor. Desplan, Sanes. 4 points.
Provides an understanding of current molecular and genetic approaches to neural development, emphasizing phylogenetic comparison.

Simulation and Data Analysis
G80.2233  Identical to G89.2233. Prerequisite: a statistics course, G80.2206, or permission of the instructor. 3 points.

Linear Systems
G80.2236  Identical to G89.2236. Prerequisite: a semester of calculus or permission of the instructor. Maloney. 3 points.

Function and Dysfunction of Central Auditory Processing
G80.2522  Prerequisites: G80.2201, 2202, or permission of the instructor. Sanes. 3 points.
Explores the relationship between central auditory physiology and psychoacoustics and those elements of the central auditory system that may change with deafness.

Special Topics in Neural Science
G80.3041, 3042, 3201, 3202  3 points per term.
Advanced seminars led by the faculty to provide in-depth consideration of specific topic areas in neural science. Examples of recent topics: Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, A New View of Visual Cortex, Classic Papers in Auditory Neuroscience, Auditory and Visual Cortex, Neuroimaging, Neuronal Mechanisms of Color Vision, Neural Adaptation, Nonlinear Dynamics and Neural Modeling, Neuronal Networks.

Information Processing and Visual Pathways
G80.3235  Prerequisite: G80.2202 or equivalent. Shapley, staff. 3 points.
Seminar and lecture course in visual signal processing and visual pathways.

Dissertation Research and Seminar
G80.3301, 3302  1-3 points per term.

Reading Course in Neural Science
G80.3305, 3306  May be repeated for credit. 1-3 points per term.

Stress, Arousal, and the Amygdala
G80.3307  LeDoux. 3 points.

Beyond Filtering: Selected Topics in Visual Perception
G80.3310  Rubin. 3 points.
Critical examination of modern approaches to vision research. Emphasis is on the interplay between theory and experiment.

Research Problems in Neural Science
G80.3321, 3322  May be repeated for credit. 1-3 points per term.

Neural Control of Movement
G80.3331  May be repeated for credit. Glimcher. 1-3 points.

Computational Neuroscience Forum
G80.3350  Rinzel. 3 points.
Lecture/seminar course on computational aspects of neural function.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Lab
G80.2245  Identical to G89.2245. Heeger, Inati. 3-6 points.

Fellows’ Seminar
G80.3380, 3381  May be repeated for credit. 1-3 points per term.
One-hour research colloquium given by members of the Center for Neural Science.

Seminar in Current Topics
G80.3390, 3391  May be repeated for credit. 1-3 points per term.
Weekly one-hour research colloquium given by the Center for Neural Science faculty or outside speakers.

Seminar in Neuroeconomics
G80.3410  Glimcher. 3 points.
Seminar on the intersection of the fields of neuroscience, psychology, and economics.

 Back to Top