Syllabus

Short Course Description

An introduction to system neuroscience that covers diverse topics and perspectives in the field. The course is divided to three blocks headed by each of the three lecturers.
Block 1: System Neuroscience principles - Prof. Pablo Blinder. What is a system? Building blocks of systems, network science. Neural coding: rate vs. temporal codes, population coding. The whisking system - organization, sensory pathways and active sensing. The motor system: Fundamentals of the motor system, spinal and peripheral motorics, motor planning and execution.
Block 2: Learning, memory and decision making - Dr. Arseny Finkelstein.
Memory: types and systems of memory, episodic memory and its relation to spatial memory, the neural basis for navigation and coding of spatial information.
Learning: the neural basis of learning processes. Mechanisms of synaptic plasticity in learning. Changes in neural code and information representation in different stages of learning.
Decision-making: brain systems for decision making. Computational models of decision-making processes. Network mechanisms of short-term memory and the use of short-term memory in decision making. The relationship between neural network connectivity and the neural coding of cognitive information.
Block 3: from audition and sensory systems to the neurobiology of sleep, waking and consciousness. Prof. Yuval Nir: Audition: basics of sounds, sensory transduction, receptive fields, Localizing sounds in space, higher auditory functions. Sleep: sleep stages and EEG rhythms, Sleep across the animal kingdom & across the life span, Brain centers regulating wakefulness and sleep, Neuronal activity in sleep, Circadian Rhythms, why do we sleep? Sleep, learning and memory.