Lectures take place in Loeb G70N from 9 – 11 am EST.

LECTURE VIDEO LIBRARY

From 2014-2018, NS&B faculty lectures were broadcast live then archived by  so you can enjoy them at anytime. All lectures will open in a new window. The 2014 lectures and some of the 2016 lectures were recorded with speaker-specific microphones; all of the rest, including the remaining 2016 lectures, were recorded will a global microphone that allows you to hear student questions.

Below is a list of lecture topics by module. 

The Leech Module 

  1. Membrane Potential and Passive Properties of Neurons (Part 1), 
  2. Membrane Potential and Passive Properties of Neurons (Part 2), 
  3. Voltage-Gated Ionic Currents Underlying Neuronal Electrical Activity (Part 1), 
  4. Voltage-Gated Ionic Currents Underlying Neuronal Electrical Activity (Part 2), 
  5. Central Pattern Generators,  
  6. Synaptic Transmission, 
  7. Three ways to decide: Behavioral choices by the leech nervous system,  
  8. What leeches can teach us about neuroendocrine control, 
  9. Development of the Leech , 
  10. Understanding the embryo of the leech Helobdella, a tractable spiralian, 
  11. Systems Neurophysiology vs. Neuroethology: Two approaches, 
  12. Low Threshold Calcium Conductance as a Signal Amplifier, 
  13. Studying The Neural Circuits That Generate Locomotion: One Crawl Step At A Time, 
  14. Influence of Motor Neurons on Crawling in the Leech, 
  15. You can’t keep a good leech down: Learning about the control of locomotion through recovery from CNS injury, 
  16. The importance of neural modulation and context for behavioral selection, 
  17. Leech reproduction: A tail of two circuits, 
  18. Sensory system evolution: Changing synaptic connections between P cells in leeches, 
  19. Hybrid systems: New insights and approaches, 
  20. Introduction to computational neuroscience, 
  21. Low cost approaches to neuroscience, 

The Stomatogastric Ganglion Module

  1. Introduction to the stomatogastric nervous system,
  2. Neuromodulation, 
  3. Neuromodulation of Neural Circuits, 
  4. Motor pattern specification: functional consequences, 
  5. The Role of Axons in Neural Coding, 
  6. Circuit Dynamics,
  7. Synaptic Dynamics, 
  8. Sensorimotor Integration, 
  9. Variability and stability in the nervous system, 
  10. The secret life of axons: neuromodulation of spike propagation, 
  11. Coordination of Neural Oscillators, 
  12. Principles of rhythmic circuits, 
  13. Switching participation between networks, 
  14. Circuit mechanisms of sleep and epilepsy, 

Electric Fish Module

  1. Introduction to weakly electric fish,
  2. Locomotor control, 
  3. Neuromodulation of Sensory Processing, 
  4. Neural Coding: single neurons, 
  5. Introduction to the electrosensory system, 
  6. Neural coding I: General principles, 
  7. Neural coding II: Adaptation to natural stimulus statistics, 
  8. Neural coding III: Encoding envelopes, 
  9. Coding of natural electrocommunication stimuli, 
  10. Control of locomotion and consequences of coding, 
  11. Sensory coding of movement, 
  12. Electroreceptors, An overview across species. 
  13. Electrogeneration, 
  14. Feedback and the brain in weakly electric fish, 
  15. Electroreception in the wild, 
  16. Electrolocation: neural coding, 
  17. Modulation and evolution of electric signals, 
  18. Neuroendocrine regulation of electromotor pathways, 

C. elegans Module

  1. Introduction to genetic model organisms, 
  2. Cell biology of neurodevelopment in C. elegans
  3. Genetic model organisms, 
  4. Behavioral variability and chemosensation, 
  5. C. elegans neuroethology of behavior, 
  6. The Neuroethology of the C. elegans escape response, 
  7. Optical reporters as tools to link genes to behavior, 
  8. Introduction C. elegans
  9. C. elegans genetic screens, 
  10. Reverse genetics in the worm nervous system, 
  11. Food, behavior and neural degeneration, 
  12. Quantitative analysis of behavior in C. elegans
  13. The neuroethology of the C. elegans escape response,
  14. Decoding of motor systems, 
  15. Can worms get headaches, 
  16. Electron microscopy and connectomes 

Hydra Module 

  1. The Brain Activity Map & Intro to Hydra, 
  2. Hydra principles, 
  3. Molecular methods in Hydra, 
  4. Functional networks in Hydra, 
  5. Hydra principles III, 
  6. Theory and modeling in Hydra 
  7. The immortal Hydra Daniel Martinez 2019

Hippocampus/Striatum Module

  1. Introduction to the hippocampus, 
  2. Hippocampal Circuits and Synaptic Plasticity, 
  3. Neurological Disorders,
  4. Hippocampal neural ensemble coding, 
  5. Animal models of mental illness, 
  6. Synthesis and integration: Cognition-associated neural coordination and discoordination in Fragile X mutant mice, 
  7. Inspirations from Jimi Hendrix: If Space was Time…Are You Experienced? 
  8. Hippocampal Information Processing II, 
  9. If space was time: the dynamic micro-infrastructure of cognition, 
  10. Introduction to hippocampus and Fragile X mouse, 
  11. Introduction to learning and memory: the synaptic plasticity hypothesis, 
  12. Hippocampal in vivo electrophysiology 1: the basics, 
  13. Memory associated modulation of synaptic circuits, 
  14. Linking the development of behavior and neuronal activity, 
  15. Place cells and behavior, 
  16. Striatum Physiology, 
  17. Reinforcement learning and decision making, 
  18. How experience changes the hippocampal circuitry,
  19. Twists in brain oscillations: rhythms that are not rhythmic, and spikes that are not coherent with LFP, 
  20. Dendritic integration and fragile X syndrome, 

Fly Flight Module 

  1. Using fly behavior to study a fundamental neural computation, 
  2. Behavioral algorithms in insects & Drosophila as a model system for behavioral neuroscience,  
  3. Principles of visual processing in insects, 
  4. Structure and functions of eyes, visual ecology, and eye evolution,
  5. Motor control in fly flight, 
  6. Studying higher brain functions in flies,  
  7. Descending control of locomotion & principles of motor control, 
  8. Fly vision overview: How do flies see motion and respond to imminent collisions? 
  9. Using genetic tools to understand circuit computations I: Looming-evoked takeoff, 
  10. Using genetic tools to understand circuit computations II: Motion vision, 
  11. Aerodynamics, motor control, and flight behaviors II, 
  12. Sensory processing in the fly olfactory system, 
  13. Transformation of tactile signals in central circuits of Drosophila, 
  14. Fly motion vision as unifying theme for cycle, 
  15. Introduction to modern fly genetic tools for circuit analysis, 
  16. General principles of early sensory processing I, 
  17. General principles of early sensory processing II, 
  18. Survey of visual behaviors, algorithmic context, 
  19. Circuit mechanisms of fly visual behavior, 
  20. How the brain keeps track of the body: neural coding of limb proprioception, 
  21. A primer on Drosophila primary auditory neurons, 

Also, check out Michael Dickinson’s TED Talk: .

Somatosensory Module 

  1. Introduction to Somatosensation.  
  2. Active Dendritic Contributions to Sensorimotor Integration, 
  3. Functional Microcircuitry of Somatosensation, 
  4. Somatosensory diversity, 
  5. Barrels: Bloody Coordinated Dynamics, 
  6. Social Touch, 
  7. Socio-sexual touch in the somatosensory cortex. 
  8. Pathways of the Somatosensory System, 
  9. Inhibitory Neuron Diversity and its Role in Sensory Processing, 
  10. Modulating the Many Circuits of Touch, 
  11. Transformations underlying optimal dynamic neocortical representation, 
  12. Estrus-cycle regulation of cortical inhibition, 
  13. Perceptual roles of cortical basal ganglia interactions, 
  14. Contributions of the cerebellum to associative learning. 

Integrative Molecular Neuroethology Module

  1. Integrative Study of Neural Systems and Behavior, 
  2. Variability and compensation in neural networks: from gene expression to output, 
  3. The link between activity and genome: Activity-dependent gene expression in neurons, 
  4. Adding -omics to your research II: Next Generation Sequencing, 
  5. Adding -omics to your research: overcoming design and analysis hurdles. 
  6. Integrative approaches to mechanisms of parental care. 
  7. Evolution of Neural Systems, 
  8. Evolution of the Social Brain,
  9.  Integrative Molecular Neuroethology, 
  10. Approaches to molecular neuroethology I, 
  11. Evolution of neural systems,