Our lecture series covers a broad spectrum of neurosciences, from the molecular machinery inside cellular compartments to the system level of complex behaviours and diseases. Four lecture hours per week are accompanied by tutorials to deepen the understanding of lecture topics.
* unless stated otherwise All lectures take place in the seminar room of the European Neuroscience Institute (ENI) on the ground floor (map) unless announced otherwise. For an overview of the timetable of all lecture, tutorials and courses in PDF format, please click here. Please click on the different modules and respective lecture topics in order to see more details.
Lectures
The second lecture will focus on the anatomical basis of sensory perceptions. After a brief classification of the senses, we will try to figure out a blueprint of sensory systems. Then, the organization of various sensory systems will be dealt with in greater detail. Details on the sensory periphery, like retina and cochlea, will be covered by other lectures. Topics include Neuronal pathways from the periphery to the cortex and other primary subcortical targets,
Topical organization of sensory pathways,
Somatosensory, visual, auditory, olfactory, and gustatory systems.
The second lecture will focus on the extrapyramidal system. We will look at the anatomical components, especially the cerebellum, and work our way through the information loops. These include, first, the basal nucleus loop, the cerebellar loops, and the descending motor pathways adjacent to the pyramidal pathway. In addition, we will learn about the physiological properties of the circuits and what consequences the information loops have on the control of a movement.
As long as we are in steady-state (homeostasis), this part of the nervous system stays subconscious and is therefore more difficult to address and understand than many others. Nevertheless, you can be sure that your heart rate, blood pressure, breathing frequency (and thus pO2) is as optimized by your ANS and its interplay with the hormonal system, as you digestion, urine production and hormonal levels. It is the goal of this lecture to lay-out the anatomy of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), with a focus on the brainstem and the spinal cord (both housing the major central nervous system components of the parasympathetic and sympathetic branch of the ANS)– not forgetting about the hypothalamus (providing higher-order control). Cortical control via the insula will also be included.
In a nutshell: the sympathetic nervous system drives “fight or flight” whereas the parasympathetic nervous system drives “rest or digest” bodily states.
The second part provides a very general overview of the processes of RNA biosynthesis, RNA function, and protein biosynthesis. Basic themes are: DNA transcription, RNA polymerases, RNA structure and types; mRNA synthesis and processing; ribosome synthesis and function; protein biosynthesis; damaged mRNAs .
The second part of the lecture by Prof. Ehrenreich will focus mainly on behavioral paradigms and behavioral phenotyping of mouse models of psychiatric disorders. The following topics will be covered: Validity issues of mouse models of human disease; Principles of behavioral model development; Factors that can influence the behavior of mice, and methods to minimize the impact of these factors in experimental situations; Behavioral paradigms for assessing sensory, motor, emotional, social, cognitive and executive functions in mice; New technologies in the analysis of behavioral circuits .
After touring the anatomy of the human olfactory epithelium and gustatory taste buds, we will discuss signal transduction in chemosensory systems, mechanisms of adaptation, labeled line versus across fiber patterns, olfactory and gustatory receptors, second messenger cascades, synthetic versus analytic chemosensation, chemotopic maps, temporal aspects of signal processing, higher order processing, olfactory learning.
Higher Vision: Gross anatomy of the visual system; Core aspects of early (retina to V1) visual information processing; Core aspects of V1 visual information processing; Visual areas in primate cortex; Aspects of visual information processing beyond V1; Functional anatomy and parallel pathways; Complex sensory selectivities in areas beyond V1 .
Attention: The challenges of highly evolved feed-forward sensory systems; Neurobiological solutions for these challenges; Quantitative studies of attention: Psychophysics; EEG; fMRI;
electrophysiology .
Moreover, the lecture will provide the theoretical basis for the following lectures “functional magnetic
resonance imaging” given by PD Dr. Peter Dechent and Dr. Renate Schweizer and will be
accomplished by a practical demonstration at the imaging facilities of the German Primate Center
(DPZ).
After an introduction into the physical principles of MRI and MRS we will discuss different methods
and technical requirements to obtain spatially high resolved, contrast-rich images of the brain and
to determine metabolite concentrations in certain brain regions.
The second lecture will focus mainly on the organization of voluntary movement. It will deal with the
organization of movement generation in the cortex, with the different tasks of different motor areas,
with the differences in motor execution and motor planning. Furthermore techniques how to
explore and modulate motor function in man will be taught.
The second part of this lecture will focus mainly on neurometabolic disorders. As examples Glutaraciduria Type I, CDS-syndrome and MCAD deficiency will be discussed. The discovery and characterization of cystic leukencephalopathy caused by RNaseT2 deficiency as a new rare cognitive disease will be explained.
The second lecture lecture will focus on major depressive disorder and will cover the following topics: Epidemiologic aspects and diagnosis; Neuroanatomy of mood and emotion; Neurochemistry of major depression; Neurobiology of major depression; Animal models of depression; Treatments for depression .
Introduction Neuroanatomy and CNS (Chao)
Histology & Cytology (Dresbach)
Sensory Systems / Hippocampus / Lymbic System (Möck)
Motor System / Spinal Cord / Cerebellum (Witte)
Autonomic System / Brain Stem (Staiger)
Circadian Clocks (Eichele)
Evolution, complexity and functions of nervous systems - Invertebrate models in neuroscience (Heinrich)
Vertebrate Neural Development / Primate Brain Development & Organoids (Heide)
Arthropod Neural Development / Evolution of the Brain & Transgenic Methods (Bucher)
Statistics / Software Training (Friede / Leha)
Introduction Membrane Physiology (Pardo)
Membrane Physiology & Ion Channels (Pardo)
Synaptic Transmission & Integration (Rizzoli)
DNA / Genome / Transcription / RNA / Translation (Brose)
Protein Biosynthesis and Structure of Membrane Proteins / Trafficking (Kovtun)
Genetic Engeneering (Wojcik)
Glia / Neurogenetics / Mouse Genetics (Nave / Saher / Göbbels)
Neuroimmunology (Flügel)
Signal Transduction (Göpfert)
Computational Neuroscience - Neural Encoding and Decoding (Römschied)
Autonomous Nervous System / Neuronal Control of Breathing and Circulation (Wouters)
Neuroendocrinology (Antal)
Neuropharmacology (Sereda)
Behavioral Analysis (Treue / Ehrenreich)
General Sensory Physiology (Kusch)
Somatic Senses (Moser)
Clinical Sensory Physiology (Moser)
Audition (Pangrsic)
Vision (Gollisch)
Chemosensation (Frank)
Higher Vision / Attention (Treue)
Muscle & Spinal Motor Systems (Dibaj)
MRI (Dechent / Schweizer)
Functional Neuroanatomy (Bähr)
Stroke (Maier)
Neuromuscular & Motoneuron Disorders (Zschüntzsch)
Epilepsy / Central Motor Systems (Focke / Sommer)
Mechanisms of Learning & Memory / Memory Loss / Neurodegeneration (Fischer)
Learning & Memory in non-mammalian species (Frank)
Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders (Bayer)
Rare Cognitive Diseases: Overview and selected molecular pathomechanisms (Krätzner / Dibaj)
Schizophrenia / Depression (Ehrenreich)
Higher Cognitive Functions (Wilke)