Neurosystems

Owner	Bachelor Biomedische Wetenschappen
Coordinator	dr. A.B. Mulder
Part of	Exchange Programme Faculty of Science, specialisation BSc Biomedical Sciences, year 1Biomedical sciences: Neurobiology, year 1Bachelor Biologie, year 3Bachelor Bèta-gamma, major Neurobiologie, year 3Bachelor Biomedical sciences, Neurobiology, year 3Double Bachelor Biomedical Sciences and Medicine, year 3

Course manual 2022/2023

Course content

Neurosystems (12 EC) builds on your basic knowledge from 'Fundamentals of Neuroscience', the first course of the BMW-Neurobiology minor/track. You will investigate how networks in our brain work in unison to acquire knowledge about our environment and how this is processed to make us respond appropriately. You will examine sensory systems that provide the input to our brain, the motor systems that drive our behavior and the regulatory systems that modulate both. Furthermore, you will examine the plastic properties within these systems in health and disease.

In the first part of the course you will acquire detailed knowledge from lectures and workgroup sessions about the neuroanatomy and physiology of the neurosystems. Renowned researchers will discuss the latest developments in neurosystems research. In addition you will deepen your understanding by evaluating and presenting recent scientific literature. Furthermore, you will acquire state of the art knowledge about the variety of methods used to study neurosystems. 

You will apply the knowledge on sensori-motor integration in an extensive sensori-motor practical and in your computational neurobiology project. There you will model the sensory and motor processes and study their interactions by programming (Python) a small robot car to avoid obstacles.

In the second 'hands-on' part of the course you will familiarize yourself with neurosystems research. Specifically, on the basis of scientific literature, you will design, perform, analyze and present the results of your own behavioral neurophysiological experiments using EEG and ERP measurements.

The results of the practicals and the project will be communicated via (short) research reports and scientific presentations. Your theoretical knowledge will be tested in two separate written exams.

Study materials

Literature

• Neuroscience, Purves, international 6th edition, 2019, ISBN: 9781605358413 Costs: around 50-60 euros

• Principles of Cognitive Neuroscience, Purves, 2nd edition, 2013, ISBN:978-0-87893-573-4

Objectives

• The student has an understanding of the neuroanatomy of the brain and can describe how areas are connected.
• The student understands the anatomy and physiology of the senses: vision, hearing, taste and smell.
• The student can describe the somato-sensory systems: temperature, proprioception, nociception and touch.
• The student can recognise, name and describe the motor systems of the brain.
• The student can name and describe the regulatory (hormonal) systems of the brain.
• On the basis of understanding sensory, motor and regulatory systems the student can analyze the diseases of the brain affecting these systems.
• The student understands the cognitive processes.
• The student can name and decribe the neuronal plasticity in sensory, motor and regulatory system.
• The student can evaluate and integrate different neurosystems with respect to their physiology in health and disease.
• The student is able to independently perform literature research and present the results.
• The student is able to design, perform, analyse and evaluate a scientific research project on the subject of neurosystems.
• The student can orally present and discuss scientific results from performed eperiments.
• The student can design an experiment to examine anatomical and physiological connections within and between brain areas.
• The student can apply the principles of neurosystems in a computational neurobiological modelsystems

Teaching methods

• Lecture
• Laptop seminar
• Computer lab session/practical training
• Presentation/symposium
• Self-study
• Working independently on e.g. a project or thesis

The teaching methods are stacked. Per subject individual lectures, self-study, and (laptop)seminars  are used to acquire and update neurosystems knowledge. In the lab sessions and practical trainings this knowledge is deepened and connections between subjects are made and reinforced. The computational skills are acquired by interacting with a 'robot', in which neurobiological processes can be  studied and tested.

Learning activities

Academic skills

During this course the student will further master the following academic skills:

• Critical and independent thinking
• Reviewing literature and presenting the results
  • Indepth reading and understanding scientific literature and the ability to extract the essentials
• Presentation skills
• Research skills

 All of these skills will be acquired during the practicals en tested at the presentations of the literature research (focus on the art of presentation) and the scientific experiment (focus on the scientific content).

The ability to operate in a logical manner when operationalizing a basic theoretical computational problem into a concise 'working' code. This is assessed by a live demonstration of your robots abilities.

Attendance

Programme's requirements concerning attendance (OER-B):

• Participation in all practical sessions, computer sessions, and seminars in the curriculum is obligatory.
  

Additional requirements for this course:

Attendence at the lectures is strongly recommended. During the lectures recent literature and theories are discussed in addition to the theory from the course books.  For the workgroups and practicals a mandatory attendence applies. In discussion with the coordinator and/or the 'studieadviseur' solutions to attendence problems will be dealt with.

Assessment

Item and weight	Details
Final grade
3.5 (35%) Tentamen digitaal 1
1.5 (15%) EEG_ERP_Presentatie
0.5 (5%) EEG_paper_Presentation_Content
1 (10%) Upload your Neurosystems Codebot CODE
3.5 (35%) Tentamen digitaal 2

The course consists of two theoretical partial exams, two graded presentations and one graded final computational assignment. The two partial exams have one resit that covers the subjects of the whole course.  For the presentations and the computational assignment a retake will be available during the course. For the EEG practical, no resit is available during the course. The next opportunity is the course in the following year.

Only the final calculated weighted grade is rounded according to the TER (OER) regulations.

Inspection of assessed work

The manner of inspection will be communicated via the digitial learning environment.

Assignments

Literature review

• Focus on methods and analysis of neurophysiological data (ERP/EEG). A recent artical is distributed to student groups as a start for the literature search. Results will be presented and graded.

Auditory practical

• Focus on measuring and analysing the auditory system. Theory and practice of auditory processing is dealt with. Pass/fail

Het EEG-practicum

• Focus on designing, operationalization, analysis and presenting EEG and ERP experiments.

  Research skills and academic skills are graded individually.
  The presentation is graded on a group effort basis. In exceptional cases individual team members will be graded separately.

Codebot programming assignment

• Focus on python programming of small robot. Grading on concise coding & codebot performance

Fraud and plagiarism

The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl

Course structure

Timetable

The schedule for this course is published on DataNose.

Processed student feedback

Below you will find the adjustments in the course design in response to the student feedback.

Contact information

Coordinator

• dr. A.B. Mulder

Docenten

• dr. N.L.M. Cappaert
• dr. M. van Wijk
• dr. A.B. Mulder