General Catalog 2023-24

Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Requisites: courses 1A, 1B, and 1C, or 5A, 5B, and 5C, or 6A, 6B, and 6C, Chemistry 14A or 20A, Mathematics 3A, 3B, 3C, 33A. How does mind emerge from brain? Provides summary of basic biophysics of neurons, synapses, and plasticity. Introduction to commonly used experimental and theoretical techniques of measuring, quantifying, and modeling neural activity, and their relative strengths and weakness and use of them to understand link between neural circuits, their emergent neural dynamics, and behavior in example model systems. Discussion of mechanisms of interaction between neural circuits and their role in cognition, learning, and sleep. Computer laboratory component where students learn to write simple codes to quantify neural activity patterns. Concurrently scheduled with course C286. P/NP or letter grading.