Instructor: Dr. Tres Thompson

Office: GR 4.814; Aging & Memory Research Lab, MP 2.232, Phone: 883-4933/2375

Office hours: TBA, e-mail: tres@utdallas.edu, web-page http://www.utdallas.edu/~tres

Texts: Required -- none.

Suggested reading -- these books or equivalents:

1. Martin, R. (1997). Neuroscience methods: A guide for advanced students. Amsterdam: Harwood Acad. Publ.

2. Chad, J. & Wheal, H. (1998). Cellular neurobiology: A practical approach. Oxford: IRL Press.

3. Jahnsen, H. (1995). Preparations of vertebrate central nervous system in vitro. NY: John Wiley & Sons.

Course objectives and grading: This course will a hands-on tutorial in modern neurophysiological methods, designed to familiarize graduate students interested in physiological analyses of brain and behavioral function with procedures needed to setup and run their own scientific labs. Students will be exposed to, implement, and utilize a wide variety of preparations. Methodological protocols and data collected will be written up in a course (lab) notebook, which students may photocopy for future use. Final grades will be determined both by the instructor's evaluation of the student's acquisition and use of new skills, by each student's efforts to improve their skills over the course of the semester, and largely by the quality and completeness of the protocol writeups produced.

Topics considered (from macroscopic to microscopic):

June 3: laboratories: funding, infrastructure, setup & equipment Equipment
June 10: equipment continued, with assignments Protocol example
June 17: experimental preparations: whole animal to whole-cell
June 24: preparations continued, with assignments
July 1: acute neurophysiology with in vitro slice preparations Microelectrodes
July 8: chronic neurophysiology with freely-behaving animals
July 15: other preparations: fixed & fresh frozen tissue, stains, etc.
July 22: human neurophysiological and imaging studies
July 23: Protocols due