ECE 5090

Principles of Neurophysiology

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2024-2025.

Laboratory-oriented course designed to teach the concepts and tools of cellular neurophysiology through hands-on experience with extracellular and intracellular electrophysiological techniques, and computer acquisition and analysis of laboratory results. Students explore signal transmission in the nervous system by examining the cellular basis of resting and action potentials, and synaptic transmission. Lecture time is used to review nervous system physiology, introduce laboratory exercises, discuss lab results and primary research papers, and for presentation of additional experimental preparations and methods. Invertebrate preparations are used as model systems. Students must complete and additional semester-long project. The project includes exploration of experimental neuroscience questions not covered in the undergraduate laboratory class, novel, low cost instrumentation design, computational approaches to nervous system function and development of active learning activities. It will require a project proposal early in the semester, and a final project presentation and research journal style paper at the end of the semester.

When Offered Spring.

Prerequisites/Corequisites Prerequisite: one of the following courses: general biology, BIONB 2220, physiology covering neuronal excitability and synaptic transmission, or permission of instructor. 

Comments Students concentrating in Neurobiology and Behavior must take this class for a letter grade.

• Students should understand the contemporary experimental paradigms in modern neurophysiology and become technically competent with the extracellular and intracellular recording techniques used to explore nervous system physiology.
• Students should deepen their understanding of the ionic mechanisms underlying neuronal excitability and synaptic communication in the nervous system.
• Students should develop their skills in communicating scientific results effectively through written lab reports and oral presentations.
• Students should refine their critical reading skills of primary scientific literature.
• Students should refine their ability to develop testable hypotheses, and develop independent scientific thinking.
• Graduate students will be able to prioritize, rate, evaluate, compare and contrast, and summarize Neuroscience research literature.
• Graduate students will be able to lead discussion of scientific literature, and justify, construct a scientific argument, and investigate reliability of research findings.
• Graduate students will be able to analyze and interpret research methods and data, design experiments to test hypotheses, and teach active learning activities.

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