Cross-listed: CVS/NSC 245
Prerequisites: NSC 201, Basic Neurobiology; or equivalent background with instructor's permission
Offered: Spring
All of our experience of the world around us is based on the streams of electrical signals conveyed from our sensory
receptors to the brain, and our decisions to act are based on interpretation of these neural signals. This course
focuses on how single neurons and populations of neurons represent sensory information, how sensory signals are
transformed and decoded to mediate perception, and how perceptual signals are converted into neural commands to initiate
actions. Although the main focus of the course is on the neurobiology of sensory processing and sensory-motor
transformations, a goal of the course will be for students to understand how simple behaviors (such as detection and
discrimination) can be quantified and explained in terms of neural activity. After covering the basic structure and
function of the relevant sensory and motor systems, the course will turn to quantitative approaches for linking neural
activity to perception and decision-making. The course will draw heavily upon examples from the visual, oculomotor, and
somatosensory systems, with some attention to the auditory and vestibular systems as well.
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