Bi250b
Topics in Systems Neuroscience
Winter, 2009

Class Time
Wed 2:00-3:55pm in 101 Kerckhoff
Instructor
Gilles Laurent: laurentgcaltech.edu
Thanos Siapas : thanoscaltech.edu
TA
Ming Gu : gucaltech.edu

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Group lists



Jan 7: Introduction

Jan 14: Brain maps
  1. (A) Luo and Flanagan (2007), Development of Continuous and Discrete Neural Maps
  2. (B) Kohonen and Hari (1999), Where the abstract feature maps of the brain might come from
  3. (C) Durbin and Mitchison (1990), A dimension reduction framework for understanding cortical maps

Jan 21: Techniques in systems neuroscience

Part 1 ca. 20min Electrophysiological techniques in systems neuroscience (Thanos)
Part 2 ca. 40min Guest lecture by Mala Murthy (post-doc, Laurent Lab) on genetic techniques in systems neuroscience
Part 3 ca. Students' presentation on genetic techniques in systems neuroscience (15 min each). Succint summary of papers, but emphasis on the techniques used.
  1. (A) Olsen et al. (2007), Excitatory Interactions between Olfactory Processing Channels in the Drosophila Antennal Lobe
  2. (B) Adamantidis et al. (2007), Neural substrates of awakening probed with optogenetic control of hypocretin neurons
  3. (C) Pros and Cons of techniques used in both papers.

Jan 28: Spatial maps
  1. (C) Fyhn et al. (2004), Spatial representation in the entorhinal cortex
    [supplementary material]
  2. (B) Hafting et al. (2005), Microstructure of a spatial map in the entorhinal cortex
    [supplementary material 1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
  3. (A) Burgess et al. (2007), An Oscillatory Interference Model of Grid Cell Firing

Feb 4: Simple cortices
    3-layer cortex and olfaction
    Guest: Paul Rhodes, Evolved Machines Inc.
  1. (B) Smith (1919), A preliminary note on the morphology of the corpus striatum and the origin of the neopallium
  2. (B) Reiner and Northcutt (2000), Succinic dehydrogenase histochemistry reveals the location of the putative visual and auditory areas within the dorsal ventricular ridge of Sphenodon punctatus
  3. (A) Reiner (1993), Neurotransmitter organization and connections of the turtle cortex: implications for the evolution of mammalian isocortex
  4. (C) Montagnini and Treves (2003), The evolution of mammalian cortex, from lamination to arealization

Further readings:
  1. Ulinski (1990), The cerebral cortex of reptiles
  2. Wicht and Northcutt (1998), Telencephalic connections in the Pacific Hagfish (Eptatretus stouti), with special reference to the thalamopallial system
  3. Bar and Goffinet (2000), Evolution of cortical lamination: the reelin/Dab1 pathway. Evolutionary developmental biology of the cerebral cortex
  4. Desan (1984), The organization of the cerebral cortex of the pond turtle, pseudemys scripta elegans
  5. Rhodes and Llinas (2000), Homology between turtle and mammalian cortex suggests a re-evaluation of the role of layer 1

Feb 11: Simple cortices II
    Olfaction
  1. (C) Montagnini and Treves (2003), The evolution of mammalian cortex, from lamination to arealization
  2. Gilles presents the basics of the structure of the olfactory system in mammals and insects. Comparisons, architectures, dynamics.
  3. (B) Jortner, Farivar and Laurent (2007), A Simple connectivity scheme for sparse coding in an olfactory system
  4. (A) Haberly(2001), Parallel-distributed processing in olfactory cortex: new insights from morphological and physiological analysis of neuronal circuitry
Further radings:
  1. Somogyi(2008), Neuronal diversity and temporal dynamics: the unity of hippocampal circuit operations

Feb 18: Spike timing dependent plasticity
  1. (B) Jortner, Farivar and Laurent (2007), A Simple connectivity scheme for sparse coding in an olfactory system
  2. (B) Markram et al. (1997), Regulation of Synaptic Efficacy by Coincidence of Postsynaptic APs and EPSPs
  3. (C) Froemke and Dan (2002), Spike-timing-dependent synaptic modification induced by natural spike trains
  4. (A) Roberts and Bell (2002), Spike timing dependent synaptic plasticity in biological systems

Feb 25: REM Sleep
  1. (A) Roberts and Bell (2002), Spike timing dependent synaptic plasticity in biological systems
  2. (A) Louie and Wilson (2001), Temporally Structured Replay of Awake Hippocampal Ensemble Activity during Rapid Eye Movement Sleep
  3. (C) Siegel (2001), The REM Sleep-Memory Consolidation Hypothesis
  4. (B) Crick and Mitchison (1983), The function of dream sleep

Mar 4: Neural oscillations
  1. (A) Louie and Wilson (2001), Temporally Structured Replay of Awake Hippocampal Ensemble Activity during Rapid Eye Movement Sleep
  2. (B) Shadlen and Movshon (1999), Synchrony Unbound: A Critical Evaluation of the Temporal Binding Hypothesis
  3. (C) Engel et al. (2001), DYNAMIC PREDICTIONS:OSCILLATIONS AND SYNCHRONY IN TOPDOWN PROCESSING
  4. (A) Perez-Orive et al. (2002), Oscillations and Sparsening of Odor Representations in the Mushroom Body

Mar 11: Project Presentation


Group A Avni, Brandon, Jon, Jonathan, Maggie, Shay, Tyler
Group B Calvin, Justin, Sindhu, Virgil, Wendy, Zak
Group C Amit, Andreas, Ben, Christin, Crystal, Simon

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