Neurobiologie

Course Content: This course provides hands-on training in modern videography techniques and electrophysiology methods used in behavioral and sensory neuroscience research. Students will gain practical skills in subject tracking, kinematic feature extraction, behavioral segmentation, and behavioral classification, along with essential techniques for preprocessing and analyzing electrophysiological data. The course will also focus on establishing connections between behavioral and neural variables to infer the understanding of underlying mechanisms.

Learning Outcome: Throughout the course, students will actively engage in practical exercises, including data collection, analysis, and interpretation. They will also have opportunities to work with state-of-the-art videography and electrophysiology equipment and software, gaining proficiency in their application. By the end of the course, students will have a comprehensive understanding of modern videography and electrophysiology techniques and the ability to relate behavioral and neural variables effectively.

Prerequisites: Basic knowledge of neuroscience, statistics, and programming is recommended. Familiarity with videography and electrophysiology concepts will be advantageous but not mandatory.

Content: We will discuss a comprehensive and original approach to computational tasks performed by the brain based on the book "Principles of Neural Design" by Simon Laughlin and Peter Sterling. Students will read the book, and one chapter per week will be presented by a student and critically discussed. Evaluation will consist of the chapter presented (50%) and the discussion along the course of other chapters (50%).

Hallo zusammen!

Dieser Moodlekurs dient nur dazu, unsere Informationen an alle Teilnehmer an einer Stelle zu bündeln. So gehen keine Infos in Emailwüsten verloren, und auch potentielle Nachrücker können schnell und einfach alles an einer Stelle finden.

Content: Mornings will be devoted to presentations, including student presentations on songbird
neuroscience to familiarize students with topics that will be researched during practical courses.
Afternoons will allow students to get familiarized with stainings and anatomy of songbird brains,
songbird neuroanatomy, electrophysiology and behavior.
Students are required to have a good knowledge on neuroscience corresponding to the Masters
course 'Fundamentals in Neuroscience'.

Learning outcomes: Students will learn about a fantastic model to perform neuroscience research: songbirds. They will
get familiar with methods to study the structure and function of their brains and their behavior.

Content: Organoids represent an emerging model system technology that allows the growth and analysis of human organ-like tissues in the dish. Brain organoids in particular have proven valuable for research due to the difficulty of investigating human brain development experimentally. In this 2-week block course, the participants will learn how to work in cell culture as well as grow and analyze brain organoids themselves. The course consists of a theoretical and a practical part.

Learning outcome: During the theoretical morning lectures, the students will learn the theoretical basics of stem cell and organoid culture as well as present a recent paper on organoid technologies themselves. During the practical parts in the afternoon, the students will acquire hands-on experience in organoid culture. They will be introduced to good working practices that are required in a sterile stem cell lab. Consequently, they will learn how to culture and passage stem cells as well as grow their own organoids using the original brain organoid protocol (Lancaster and Knoblich, 2014). Finally, the students will learn how to analyze organoids histologically.

In this lab you will obtain intracellular recordings from the neurons of the medicinal leech (Hirudo medicinalis).

By the end of this lab you will be able to do the following:

1. Understand the importance of AD/DA conversions, sampling rates and amplification gains.
   
2. Dissect a leech and identify segmental ganglia.
3. Use a micromanipulator to position glass recording electrodes (microelectrodes) over the leech ganglion.
4. Make intracellular recordings from leech neurons.
5. Deliver current injections through the electrode using an intracellular amplifier and the PowerLab.
6. Identify different at least 5 types of neurons (Retzius cells, T cells, N cells, P cells and motor neurons).
   
7. Stimulate the sensory neurons (T cells) that are responsive to touch on the skin.
   
8. Attempt paired recordings of two Retzius cells and observe the gap-junction coupling.

Willkommen zur Übung "Methoden der Physiologie - Teile Human- und Tier-Physiologie"!

Die Übung besteht aus sechs Kursteilen, die über den November und Dezember hinweg durchgeführt werden.

For each topic I provide first a presentation with theoretical introduction. Then we switch to Matlab where I explain how to implement a particular analysis using a well-commented demo script. At the end the participants can try the explained analysis on their own using the provided list of exercises as a guideline.

Programming skills or prior Matlab knowledge is helpful, but not necessary. No need for a powerful PC or laptop, or Matlab license, because all the work is done remotely on the lab server. Fast enough internet connection is desirable.

Content: The course is intended for Master and PhD students interested in systems neuroscience and willing to learn state-of-the-art extracellular recording techniques and analysis of the electrophysiological data. The course includes both theoretical introduction into all the aspects of the extracellular recording and hands-on practicum on recordings with tetrodes or silicon probes of local field potentials and multiple single neurons in freely moving rats or mice. Training will include animal handling and training, preparing electrodes, brain surgery, recording in typical behavioral tasks, data processing, spike sorting and typical data analysis of local field potentials and spike trains in Matlab. 

Acquired skills: After participating in the course, the students will learn about modern extracellular recording techniques, the origin and interpretation of extracellular signals, application of the techniques to spatial navigation and learning research. They will be familiarized with the terminology relevant to the electrophysiological experiments. Under close supervision, the students will go through all the principle steps of a typical experiment themselves. At the end they will be able to handle and train animals, make tetrodes and implant them into the brain, operate an acquisition system to record extracellular signals, visually explore and evaluate quality of the recorded data, prepare the data for further analysis, do spike sorting, program Matlab scripts to perform typical spectral and spike train analysis. The acquired knowledges and skills can be directly applied to specific scientific projects the students are already working on or plan to work on in the future. 

The lecture Systems Neuroscience 1 addresses the principles of sensory processing, the transduction of adequate stimuli, and ensuing sensory-motor interactions. A detailed description of the peripheral and central stages of each specific sensory system is accompanied by theoretical concepts of the underlying neuronal processing. The lecture is given weekly (VIA ZOOM; 2 SWS) and requires regular attendance and a final exam. The following sensory systems are covered by participating lecturers:

-The mechanosensory lateral line system of aquatic animals and its role in the detection, identification and localisation of objects on the water surface or within the water body

-Electroreception: peripheral and central properties of independently evolved systems, and the systems’ role in object detection, orientation, and communication

-The ontogenesis, organization and plasticity of the vestibular system and general aspects of sensory-motor interaction

-Principles of several chemoreceptive systems, peripheral and central processes of the gustatory and the olfactory system, multimodal interactions 

-Peripheral and central stages of somatosensory systems, and their function

-Mechanisms of pain, and temperature perception

1 ECTS in combination with lecture WP10.1; registration until April 12th per email: Valerie.Kirsch@med.uni-muenchen.de

Content

Learning outcomes

Structure

An advanced seminar on issues of current interest in neural circuits of visual perception. We will focus on recent discoveries in vision circuits, behaviour and computational model.

We have an interactive online format with plenty of discussions.