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University of Colorado, Boulder
Introduction to Neuroscience (NRSC 2100) Fall Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Hello everyone! Welcome to NRSC2100! You guys represent the second class ever to graduate with a neuroscience major at CU, so this is all very exciting! As a student TA, my goals are to provide you with a didactic atmosphere towards neuroscience and ensure that you all obtain a comprehensive knowledge of introductory neuroscience material, as well as to try and stimulate any long-term predilections towards the field of progressive neuroscience. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments regarding any process of the class or social-media participation, please feel free to contact me, any of the other TAs, or Dr. Cooper at any point in time through email, the coursestreet, or facebook. Remember, we are here for you guys! The other TAs and myself are also students and are learning as well, so we can relate and attempt to resolve any issues or discrepancies that you may interpret. We are all experiencing the art of what we call "neuropedagogy" for the first time, so it is a learning experience for everyone. So with that, I am very thrilled and happy to be spending the semester with you! Get ready for an informative, interactive, and fun semester! Just a note, my most immediate email address is matt.pomrenze@gmail, not @colorado.edu. 
NeuroInteraction! Hey everyone! This is a great website for interactive neuroscience education, as well as all other branches of biology including genetics, biochemistry, molecular biology, and immunology to just name a few. 
Learn all of the Cranial Nerves for the first quiz!! A Brief Insight into the Action Potential 
Electrical Signaling in the Neuron: The Resting Membrane Potential Now, a bit more advanced... 
Electrical Signaling in the Neuron The Voltage Clamp Method This is an experimental technique employed by neuroscience laboratories across the world. It has powerful abilities to assess the electrical properties of individual neurons in vitro, and can uncover any electrochemical or synaptic plasticity that has occurred due to any experimental manipulations such as stress, learning, drug exposure, optogenetic stimulation, or any behavioral task. 
Moving Across the Synapse: AMPA and NMDA Receptors As we move from the basics of the action potential and the resting membrane potential to the electrodynamics of the neuron, we find ourselves at the presynaptic junction of neurotransmission. Now we move across the synapse from the presynaptic cell to the postsynaptic cell, with the next critical players in our picture being the actual receptors that neurotransmitters bind to in order to transmit their neural message. These are two fundamental glutamatergic receptors that interact and contribute to almost every physiological and psychological function of the brain. 
The Brain's Reward Pathway These neuroscience animations are hosted by Learn.Genetics through the University of Utah, and they are extremely informative. One of my favorite particular pages is called "Drugs Alter the Brain's Reward Pathway". Click on any of the links for an interactive animation about that subject of the reward pathway. A couple of my favorites are the long lasting changes and the physiology of the high. It's great fun, relevant to everyday life, and you learn a ton! I know I did! Drugs Alter the Brain's Reward Pathway 
As posted on the facebook wall, here is the link to the trailer and several other videos of the movie "The Music Never Stopped" which premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. It's about how a man who went through surgery to remove a brain tumor, and consequently lost much of his long-term memory, was able to reconnect with many of those long-term childhood memories through listening to the music he grew up on, including the Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, and the Beatles. It's a very fascinating story of how the brain's long-term memory traces can be activated through their associations with music. In NRSC 4032, The Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, it is shown how this can actually be achieved, with activation of the hippocampal memory index and how certain semantic memories can trigger the retrieval of others. The movie shows a very fascinating connection between music and neuroscience, so check it out! There's also some really rare footage of Bob Weir and Mickey Hart playing some acoustic tunes in support of the movie and the film festival, so be sure to check those out too! Enjoy! 
Primary Journals in the field of Neuroscience This is one of the leading journals in the field of neuroscience, with cutting edge research and a vast community. It's a great website to search for archived articles that are at the top of their field. The Journal of NeuroscienceHere is an article that Dr. Cooper directly referenced in class. Lack of Self-Administration of Cocaine in Dopamine D1 Receptor Knock-Out Mice 
Optogenetics: Let There Be LIGHT!! If you're curious about the background image (which most inquisitive neuroscientists would be!), it is a cultured glutamatergic pyramidal neuron from the hippocampus transfected with a gene encoding a protein known as channelrhodopsin-2 with an EYFP (enhanced yellow fluorescent protein that fluoresces green) tag (Deisseroth et al.). As you can see, the protein is expressed ubiquitously throughout the cell. Channelrhodopsin-2 is an excitatory opsin protein that forms a functional ion channel permeable to Na+ ions. This protein is sensitive to photons of a blue frequency, and when these photons are absorbed, the proteins undergo a conformational change that opens the channel, allowing Na+ ions to pass through, thereby invoking action potentials. This is a powerful tool to selectively activate (or inactivate) specific populations of neurons within living organisms, and is known as optogenetics. 
The New York Times published an article in May 2011 discussing the exciting and impressive possibilities of new optogenetic technology. It seems as if this novel method is catching on! Control Desk for the Neural Switchboard This is the ribbon diagram of the x-ray crystalline structure of native rhodopsin from bovine rod cells. It makes sense that these are the proteins that exist in many animals' retinas, absorbing light and transducing energy. By isolating the gene and transplanting it using fancy molecular tricks, we can get any cell we want to express the protein and respond to light! 
This is an artist's depiction of the channelrhodopsin protein in action. Notice how the blue light wave/particle (photon) is being absorbed by the protein complex that is embedded in the cell membrane, and how the subunit to the right is forming an permeable channel, allowing the flow of ions through. In this case, they are Sodium ions, and they are depolarizing the cell. 
This is a video produced by Nature about their selected method of the year for 2010, that being optogenetics. It is a really informative synopsis of optogenetics, so it is definitely worth watching! Here is the excerpt from the Nature video of a transgenic mouse containing the gene for a protein known as channelrhodopsin-2 within its right secondary motor cortex. Notice what happens as the blue laser light is initiated, and then when it is terminated. This is a prime example of the power that this molecular tool possesses. Gradinaru V, Thompson KR, Zhang F, Mogri M, Kay K, Schneider MB, Deisseroth K. Targeting and readout strategies for fast optical neural control in vitro and in vivo. J Neurosci. 2007 Dec 26;27(52):14231-8. Uploaded with ImageShack.us The mechanisms that support the properties of cellular and molecular neuroscience are the same ones that govern all cellular and molecular biology. Here are some animated representations of what is happening in every single one of our cells at almost every period in time. It is insanely remarkable, so it is worth taking a moment to think about. Let me know what you think! The Inner Life of the Cell - Biovisions from Harvard Powering the Cell: Mitochondria - Biovisions from Harvard Molecular Visualizations of DNA - DNA Chromosome Wrapping - DNA Replication - Transcription of DNA to RNA - Translation of RNA to Protein - Hemoglobin and Sickle Cell Anemia - From the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research The Grateful Dead - 09/20/1982 MSG, New York The Grateful Dead - 06/21/1980 West High Auditorium, Anchorage, Alaska Hippocampus and Amygdala Lecture by Matt Pomrenze Power Point slides: Click to download |
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| Last modified 2 Sep 2011 12:52 AM by Matt P. | ||||||
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