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Basic Neuroscience
Provider: Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences

Activity no.: 3236-17-00-00 
Enrollment deadline: 25/10/2017
Date and time15.11.2017, at: 09:15 - 03.01.2018, at: 15:00
Regular seats15
Course fee9,120.00 kr.
LecturersJakob Balslev Sørensen
ECTS credits5.00
Contact personLene Nordby Madsen    E-mail address: lnm@sund.ku.dk
Enrolment Handling/Course OrganiserPhD administration     E-mail address: phdkursus@sund.ku.dk

Aim and content
This course is free of charge for PhD students at Danish universities (except Copenhagen Business School). Special rules apply for research year students enrolled at Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at UCPH. All other participants must pay the course fee.
Anyone can apply for the course, but if you are not a PhD student, you will be placed on the waiting list for the course until enrollment deadline. After the deadline of enrollment, available seats will be allocated to students on the waiting list.

Learning objectives
A student who has met the objectives of the course will be able to:

1. have insight into the anatomy and function of the nervous system across all levels of organization.
2. understand the most commonly used methods to investigate the nervous system.
3. understand, analyze and discuss contemporary neuroscience literature.

Content
• The morphology and functions of neurons and glia cells.
o The techniques for mapping neuronal connections and networks
o Neuronal transcriptional and translation activity, and axonal transport of proteins
o Demonstration of mRNA and proteins in neurons and glia cells.
• The passive and active electrical properties of neurons
o The origin of the resting membrane potential
o The molecular and electrical basis for the action potential
• The properties of synaptic transmission and plasticity
o Transmission at the chemical and electrical synapse.
o The basis for excitation and inhibition, and their interaction.
o Short-term synaptic plasticity: facilitation and depression
o Long-term changes in synaptic strenght and implications for learning.
• The use of animal models to study normal and pathological neuronal signaling
o Small genetic model systems
o Mammalian genetic models
o Models based on other principles (e.g. lesioning of specific brain areas)
o Possibilities and limitations in modeling human neurological and psychiatric disease
• Layout and Function of the monoaminergic systems
o Anatomy of the dopaminergic, serotonergic and noradrenergic systems
o What does dopamine signal: hedonia, learning, and incentive salience?
o Molecular composition of dopaminergic signalling
o Drugs of abuse: mechanisms of action
o Serotonine and motor control, mood disorders etc.
• The emerging roles of glia cells
o Types of glia and their function.
o Roles of glia cells in LTP
o signaling processing in glia
• The physiology of micro-, mesoscale-circuits and systems
o Principles of sensory processing and motor control.
o Circuit design by synaptic properties, intrinsic neuronal membrane properties and connections, examplified by, e.g., CPGs and cortical circuits.
o methods for behavioral and physiological analysis of small circuits and brains, e.g. optical recordings of ensemble behavior of neurons, neuronal synchronization and rhythmicity, optogenetics, EEG, connectomics, genetics.
• The higher cortical functions
o Techniques for assessing higher cognitive processes
o Principles of macro-structural cortical organization with an emphasis on the visual system.
o Brain mechanisms of emotion, memory and attention
o Brain Plasticity

Participants
The course offers a broad overview of the nervous system, and common physiological techniques used to study it at different levels of organization (the single neuron/cell, smaller and larger circuits, the whole brain). It further trains the students in reading contemporary neuroscience research literature It aims at those Ph.D. students, who would like to add a broad neuroscience course to their C.V. It might be less suitable for those Ph.D.-students, who already have a solid neuroscience background.
The course is offered also as a Master’s course on the Human Biology Education (called ‘Neuronal Signalling’). Ph.D.-students, who have previously followed the Master’s course cannot follow the Ph.D.-course.

Relevance to graduate programmes
The course is relevant to PhD students from the following graduate programmes at the Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences, UCPH:

Neuroscience
All graduate programmes

Language
English

Form
Lectures, demonstration exercises, literature seminars and discussions.

Course director
Jakob Balslev Sørensen, Professor, Center for Neuroscience, jakobbs@sund.ku.dk

Teachers
Jakob Balslev Sørensen, Professor, Center for Neuroscience.
Claire Francesca Meehan, Associate Professor, Center for Neuroscience.
Kenneth Lindegaard Madsen, Associate Professor, Center for Neuroscience.
Jens Christian Rekling, Associate Professor, Center for Neuroscience.
Jean-Francois Perrier, Associate Professor, Center for Neuroscience.
Ole Kjærulff, Associate Professor, Center for Neuroscience.

Dates
15. Nov. 2017 (9:15-17:00); 22. Nov. 2017 (9:15-15:00); 29. Nov 2017 (9:15-15:00), 6. Dec. 2017 (9:15-15:00); 11. Dec. 2017 (9:15-11:00); 13. Dec. 2017 (9:15-16:00); 20. Dec. 2017 (9:15-16:00); 3. January 2018 (9:15-15:00). Changes might occur.

Course location
Panum Building and Maersk Tower, University of Copenhagen, Blegdamsvej 3, 2200 Copenhagen N.

Registration
Please register before 25 October 2017

Seats to PhD students from other Danish universities will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis and according to the applicable rules.
Applications from other participants will be considered after the last day of enrolment.




Note: All applicants are asked to submit invoice details in case of no-show, late cancellation or obligation to pay the course fee (typically non-PhD students). If you are a PhD student, your participation in the course must be in agreement with your principal supervisor.

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