Intro. to Neuroscience: Behavioral Neuroscience (2019-2020)
Times of Lectures below are correct -- and will be delivered as scheduled, either remotally via Zoom (if the coronavirus lockdown continues) or frontally (if the coronavirus situations will be over).
Lecturers: Prof. Nachum Ulanovsky, Dr. Saikat Ray, Prof. Rony Paz.
Time: The 2'nd semester of 2019-2020. Meetings take place on Thursdays, from 11:15 - 14:00, at Wolfson Auditorium (unless indicated otherwise).
This course will introduce students to Behavioral Neuroscience, first by providing an in-depth introduction to behavior, and then focusing on two different approaches that are common in the field: One approach ("neuropsychological") is to study animals in artificial well-controlled tasks, the other ("neuroethological") approach utilizes the animal's natural behaviors. We will introduce general aspects, and will contrast and compare these two approaches by focusing on several well-studied, classic example systems.
| Part A: Introduction to Brain and Behavior (Ray) | |
|---|---|
| 1. | Introduction to Behavior. (20/4/2020) [NOTE: special date. Monday 11:15-14:00. Location: Wolfson auditorium (the usual location)] [Intro to the course] [Lecture - PDF] [Lecture - Powerpoint with Movies] |
| 2. | Neurobiology of social behaviors. (23/4/2020) [Lecture - PDF] [Lecture - Powerpoint with Movies] |
| Part B: Neural mechanisms of Behavior – the Neuroethological approach (Ulanovsky) | |
| 3. | Sensory ecology: evolutionary adaptations of animal sensory systems to their environment. (27/4/2020) [NOTE: special date. Monday 11:15-14:00. Location: Wolfson auditorium (the usual location)] [Lecture PDF] [Movies] |
| 4. | Example system #1: Echolocation in bats: Sensory ecology, echolocation behavior, principles of biosonar signal design, neural processing. (30/4/2020) [Lecture PDF] [Movies] |
| 5. | Example system #2: Multisensory integration in the brain of the barn owl. (Guest lecture by Prof. Yoram Gutfreund, Technion) (7/5/2020) [Lecture PDF] |
| 6. | Example system #3: The bird song system: behavior, neuroanatomy, physiology, models. (Guest lecture by Dr. Liora Las, Weizmann Institute) (14/5/2020) [Lecture PDF] |
| 7. | Example system #4: Neurobiology of spatial cognition. Introduction to spatial memory and navigation: (i) Navigational strategies in different animals. (ii) Sensory mechanisms of navigation: vision, magnetic navigation, etc. The navigation circuits in the mammalian brain: Place cells, grid cells, head-direction cells, etc. (21/5/2020) [Lecture PDF] [Movies] |
| 8. | Summary of the neuroethological approach. Choosing the right behavior and the right animal model. Natural Neuroscience. Comparative Neuroscience. (4/6/2020) [Lecture PDF] |
| Part C: Neural mechanisms of Behavior – the Neuropsychological approach (Paz) | |
| 9. | Introduction: Basic concepts, standard behavioral tasks. Example system #5: Reinforcement learning. (Guest lecture by Dr. Genela Morris) (11/6/2020) [Lecture PDF] |
| 10. | Example system #6: Fear learning and its neural circuits. (18/6/2020) [Lecture PDF] |
| 11. | Example system #7: Decision-making in the brain. (25/6/2020) [Lecture PDF] |
| 12. | Visual psychophysics, visual perception. (Guest lecture by Prof. Dubi Sagi, Weizmann Institute) (2/7/2020) |
Course requirements: Final exam.
Bibliography:
We will use three main textbooks in this course:
- Behavioral Neurobiology, An integrative approach, 3'rd ed., Zupanc G. (Oxford, 2018)
- Behavioral Neurobiology, Carew J. (Sinauer, 2000)
- Learning and Behavior, Bouton M. (Sinauer, 2007)
Additional material for some of the lectures is covered in the following books:
- Sensory Ecology, Dusenbery D. (Freeman, 1992)
- An Introduction to Behavioral Endocrinology, 4'th ed., Nelson R. (Sinauer, 2011)
- Neuroeconomics: Decision making and the Brain, 2nd ed., Glimcher P. and Fehr E. (Academic Press, 2013)
- Neural nets in Electric Fish, Heiligenberg W. (MIT Press, 1991).