Overview: This 5-week graduate course will focus on learning the seminal studies of behavioral neurobiology, as well as commonly used techniques in neuroethological research such as behavioral recording and analysis, electrophysiology of intact and reduced preparations, pharmacology, immunohistochemistry, and confocal microscopy of neural structures. Lectures will focus both on exemplary research and background necessary to understand fundamental techniques in neurophysiology as well as behavioral analysis. In addition to lectures and discussions, students will explore neuroethology through a project that incorporates techniques they might need for their own research.

Projects: Course research will focus on invertebrates highly amenable to neuroethological analysis such as molluscs and crustaceans that are readily available in the waters of the San Juan Islands. Students will be paired for 4-week projects, each pair with its own “rig” of electrophysiological equipment. We will instruct students in techniques such as intracellular recording, single-cell inactivation, whole nerve recording, and fine-wire recording in freely-moving animals. Students will learn to label specific nerve cells using iontophoresis of fluorescent tracers, to immunolabel neural markers, and to process tissue for confocal microscopy.

We will also teach students how digital video can be used to record and quantitatively analyze many aspects of behavior and how to correlate these data with neural activity. These include tracking animal movement and measuring components body movement, amongst others. These techniques will be used in conjunction with lesion experiments to potentially isolate behavioral function to specific neurons (i.e. through drug inactivation) or parts of the nervous system (by nerve transsections), allowing quantification of behavior to compare sham-operated animals with lesioned animals. Students will have the opportunity to learn all of techniques used in the class even if the methods are not part of their course research.

Instructors for this course are:

• Dr. James A. Murray, California State University, East Bay
• Dr. Shaun Cain, Whitman College

Click here for more course information.

Enrollment is limited to 15 students. No textbook is required for this course, but Behavioral Neurobiology by Zupanc is recommended.

Student transcripts from University of Washington will list “FHL 585: Advanced Topics in Neurobiology and Physiology”