Physiology of the nervous system

1. Taste and olfaction. Taste receptors. Transduction of taste signals. Ascending gustatory pathway. Olfactory receptors. Transduction of olfactory signals. Olfactory pathway, olfactory bulbs and olfactory cortex.

2. The somatosensory system. Skin mechanoreceptors. Proprioreceptors, nociceptors and termoreceptors. Ascending pathways and processing of somatosensory signals. Primary somatosensory cortex and somatotopy. Plasticity of the somatosensory cortex. Other cortical areas processing somatosensory signals.

3. The sense of hearing. Auditory receptors and transduction of auditory signals. Coding of auditory information. Auditory pathways and auditory cortex. Mechanism of sound localization.

4. The visual system. Photoreceptors and mechanisms of visual transduction. Structure and function of the retina. Visual information processing channels. Primary visual cortex and other cortical areas processing visual signals. Visual perception.

5. Control of Eye Movements. Extraocular Muscles and Movements. Oculomotor nuclei of the brainstem. Superior colliculi. Frontal eye field and parietal cortex.

6. The spinal cord. Motor units. Spinal reflexes. Spinal central pattern generators. Descending pathways controlling spinal reflexes.

7. Descending control of movements. Postural control system. Control of voluntary movements. Plasticity of the motor cortex.”Brain-machine inferface”.

8. Structure of basal ganglia and their connections with the cortex and other brain structures. The role of basal ganglia in motor control. Basal ganglia dysfunctions. Parkinson’s disease. Huntington's disease.

9. The cerebellum. Macroscopic and microscopic structure. Neuronal circuitry of the cerebellum. Functions of the cerebellum. Motor learning.

10. Brain mechanisms of reward, motivation, emotion and addiction.

L.R. Squire, Fundamental Neuroscience, Fourth Edition. Academic Press (2012)

KNOWLEDGE

1. Knows and understands complex biological phenomena and processes.

2. Consistently refers to empirical evidence when interpreting biological phenomena and processes, understands the importance of mathematical and statistical methods.

3. Knows and understands the main achievements of sciences related to biology.

4. Knows and understands the most important issues in biology and is aware of their connections with other fields of science.

5. Knows and understands the biological mechanisms of behavior, including theoretical foundations, general issues and selected specific issues – to the extent enabling him to revise existing paradigms.

6. Knows and understand the current research trends that are important for biological mechanisms of behavior.

8. Knows and understands the research methodology in the field of biological mechanisms of behavior.

SKILLS

1. Is able to utilize knowledge from various sources for creative defining, formulating and innovative solving the complex problems or running research tasks.

2. Is able to utilize their knowledge to scrutinize and assess results of research, expert activity and other creative activity and their contribution to the scientific progress in the field of biological mechanisms of behavior.

3. Is able to integrate the current scientific evidence from different fields, and to apply it in their research activity.

SOCIAL COMPETENCE

1. Is ready for assessing their achievements in the field of biological mechanisms of behavior, as well as their commitment to the progress in the field of biological mechanisms of behavior.

2. Is ready to acknowledge the importance of the scientific knowledge in solving cognitive and practical problems.

3. Is ready for constant updating his knowledge in connection with the latest achievements in science.

End of course test