Sensory Systems

A312

Course Coordinator:

Izumi Fukunaga

Sensory Systems

Description:

The course will cover general concepts and specific modalities as detailed in the table below. Classes alternate between lecture-style teaching and a journal club. Each lecture will be based on a textbook chapter (Kandel et al’s Principles of Neural Sciences, in combination with other specialised books described in the “Textbooks” section) to cover basic and broad topics, but will also serve as an opportunity to introduce concepts required to understand the research article associated with the lecture.

Aim:

The course is structured for students who would like to know about sensory systems in the brain at an advanced level. The overall aim is expose students to research-level materials, but starting from basic concepts. Topics will include specialisations as well as common principles found in the mechanisms of sensory perception, and will cover the somatosensory, visual, auditory, olfactory systems from transduction to higher cognitive functions. In parallel, the course aims to develop students’ ability to read and discuss primary research articles, to give students an exposure to some of the latest techniques and developments.

Course Content:

The course will cover general concepts and specific modalities as detailed in the table below. Classes alternate between a lecture-style teaching and a journal club. Each lecture will be based on a textbook chapter (Kandel et al’s Principles of Neural Sciences, in combination with other, specialised books described in the “Textbooks” section) to cover basic and broad topics, but will also serve as an opportunity to introduce concepts required to understand the research article associated with the lecture.

Schedule:

Session	Title	Type	Summary of contents
1 (wk1)	Overview	lecture/intro	Motivation; Modality, basic organisation: transduction, pathways, maps, integration, perception
2 (wk1)	Sensory coding	lecture/intro	Relationship between a physical stimulus and sensation; intensity, threshold, adaptation, effect of background, discriminability
3 (wk2)	Somatosensory system I	lecture/intro	Transduction (general mechano sensing), texture representation. Coffee break - Special topic (extra lecture): Active Sensing by Dr Sander Lindeman
4(wk2)	Somatosensory system I	Journal club	Active spatial perception in the vibrissa scanning sensorimotor system by Mehta, Whitmer, Figueroa, Williams & Kleinfeld 2007
5(wk3)	Somatosensory system II	lecture/intro	Somatosensory maps, higher processing. Coffee break - Special topic (extra lecture): Object localization and discrimination by Dr Sander Lindeman
6(wk3)	Somatosensory system II	Journal club	Sparse optical microstimulation in barrel cortex drives learned behaviour in freely moving mice. Huber et al., 2008.
7(wk4)	Hearing I	lecture/intro	Ear, sound transduction, tonotopy, phase locking and sound localization.
8(wk4)	Hearing I	Journal club	A circuit for detection of interaural time differences in the brain stem of the barn owl. Carr and Konishi, 1990
9(wk5)	Hearing II	lecture/intro	Adaptation, demixing, higher processing (language)
10(wk5)	Hearing II	Journal club	Selective cortical representation of attended speaker in multi-talker speech perception. Mesgarani & Chang. 2012
11(wk6)	Vision I	lecture/intro	Light transduction, eye, retinotopy, filtering in the retina
12(wk6)	Vision I	Journal club	Wiring specificity in the direction-selectivity circuit of the retina by Briggman, Helmstaedter & Denk, 2011
13(wk7)	Vision II	lecture/intro
14(wk7)	Vision II	Journal club	Explicit information for category-orthogonal object properties increases along the ventral stream by Hong, Yamins, Majaj & DiCarlo 2016
15(wk8)	Chemical Senses I	lecture/intro	Olfactory stimuli and receptors, glomerular maps, combinatorial code.
16(wk8)	Chemical Senses I	Journal club	A novel multigene family may encode odorant receptors: A molecular basis for odor recognition. Buck and Axel. 1991
17(wk9)	Chemical Senses II	lecture/intro	Higher olfactory processing – processing in the olfactory bulb and cortical areas.
18(wk9)	Chemical Senses II	Journal club	Random convergence of olfactory inputs in the Drosophila mushroom body by Caron, Ruta, Abbott & Axel, 2013
19(wk10)	Chemical Senses III	lecture/intro	Gustation – taste receptors, pathways. Coffee break – Special topic (extra lecture): Convergence of taste and olfactory information by Dr Cary Zhang.
20(wk10)	Chemical Senses III	Journal club	Candidate Taste Receptors in Drosophila by Clybe, Warr and Carlson, 2000.

Course Type:

Elective

Credits:

2

Assessment:

Careful reading of the research article set for each journal club; Each student is asked to write a 1-page summary of the paper in their own words (Homework: 70%).

Text Book:

1. Principles of Neural Science (MIT Press) by Kandel, Schwartz, Jessell, Siegelbaum, Hudspeth

2. Auditory Neuroscience (MIT Press) by Schnupp, Nelken and King

3. Principles of Neural Design (MIT Press) by Peter Sterling and Simon Laughlin

Reference Book:

1. Vision by David Marr

Prior Knowledge:

The course is aimed at students with a background in neuroscience (either at the BSc/MSc level or having successfully completed some of the basic neuroscience course offered at OIST). It assumes knowledge in cellular neurophysiology and neuroanatomy. Most relevant courses at OIST will include B05 (Cellular Neurobiology; desirable), and A310 (Computational neuroscience; highly desirable).