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This is an intensive eight-week laboratory and lecture course focusing on the neural basis of behavior. The course is intended for graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and independent investigators. Limited to 20 participants.
This course provides broad training in modern approaches to the study of behavior. Through a combination of lectures, exercises, and projects, students investigate behavior at the molecular, systems, and organismal levels using state-of-the-art techniques. The eight weeks are divided into two-week cycles, providing participants with an in-depth familiarity with several different experimental model systems. In the first cycle, students study a simple invertebrate model system to develop general experimental skills in electrophysiology, neuroanatomy, and quantitative analysis of physiological and behavioral data. In subsequent cycles, students are given the opportunity to choose among a set of different preparations, so that they can hone the course to meet their own training and career goals. The list of experimental model systems is updated year-to-year, but always includes a diverse array of vertebrate and invertebrate preparations, chosen to illustrate key concepts and novel techniques in the field.
Each experimental preparation is taught by a team of leading experts, and topics include: the cellular basis of pattern generation, the development and neuromodulatory control of cell and circuit specificity, vocal learning and plasticity, sensory processing and feature detection, sensory-motor integration, spatial memory, and social communication. The laboratory provides access to many complementary methods including intracellular recording; single-cell dye-injection; patch-clamp; whole-cell voltage and current clamp; analysis of synaptic transmission and plasticity; cell culture; neural genetics; quantitative behavioral methods; and computational analysis. Students spend a portion of each cycle designing, performing, and analyzing the results of their own project. These projects offer an exceptional opportunity to combine newly learned skills in a creative manner.
In addition to the daily course lecture, the course sponsors a weekly seminar, given by invited lecturers and distinguished Scholars-in-Residence.
This course is supported with funds provided by
National Institute of Mental Health, NIH
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
The Grass Foundation
International Brain Research Organization
2008 Course Faculty & Lecturers:
James Angstadt, Siena College
Stephen Baccus, Stanford University
Cori Bargmann, The Rockefeller University
Dawn Blitz, University of Pennsylvania
Sarah Bottjer, University of Southern California
Michael Brecht, Humboldt University Berlin
Robert Calin-Jageman, Dominican University
Kenneth Catania, Vanderbilt University
Maurice Chacron, McGill University
Melissa Coleman, Claremont Colleges
Michael Dickinson, California Institute of Technology
John Donoghue, Brown University
Gerald Downes, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Eric Fortune, The Johns Hopkins University
Kathleen French, University of California, San Diego
Wolfgang Friesen, University of Virginia
Mark Frye, University of California, Los Angeles
Jorge Golowasch, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Leslie Griffith, Brandeis University
Anne Hart, Massachusetts General Hospital
Bruce Johnson, Cornell University
Rolf Karlstrom, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Masakazu Konishi, California Institute of Technology
Rudiger Krahe, McGill University
William Kristan, University of California, San Diego
Joel Levine, University of Toronto at Mississauga
Gaby Maimon, California Institute of Technology
Leonard Maler, University of Ottawa
Eve Marder, Brandeis University
Gary Marsat, University of Ottawa
Mark Massino, University of Minnesota
Michael Mauk, University of Texas at Austin
Christopher Moore, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Farzan Nadim, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Michael Nitabach, Yale School of Medicine
Brian Norris, California State University San Marcos
Catharine Rankin, University of British Columbia
David Redish, University of Minnesota
Michael Reiser, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Jason Ritt, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Jennifer Siegel, University of Texas-Med School, Houston
Wolfgang Stein, University of Ulm
Angela Wenning-Erxleben, Emory University
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