AN INTRODUCTION TO NEUROSCIENCE (080.105)
SUMMER 2012
Course Director:
Stewart Hendry
338 Krieger Hall
6-4583
hendry@jhu.edu
Preamble. Our understanding of the nervous system is impressive. The past two generations of
neuroscientists have managed to answer thousands of interesting questions and a few vital ones.
Left to your generation, however, is the biggest question of them, the answer to which will be the
greatest discovery in the history of humankind – how does the human brain work? Any answer
to that question now is either entirely unsatisfying (e.g. we don’t know, really) or completely
fabricated. Yet in your lifetimes you will be able to talk about how the brain works in the same
way that we now talk about the way the immune system and the gastrointestinal system work.
That places a burden on all of you. For some of you the process of discovering how the human
brain works will be your life’s effort. Some of you could well be the ones to crack the code of
human brain function. Many others will be called upon to treat patients and educate their
families based on that knowledge. All of you, as citizens of a nation in which you were born or
to which you will emigrate, will need to make decisions from your knowledge of how the human
brain works. Let me give you an example: we debate at great length and considerable heat
whether intelligence is a matter of genetics or upbringing. Most of the time we say it is both. In
thirty years we will know how much of each drives human intelligence, and that is sure to drive
public policy. If you intend to participate in that debate you had better understand what has been
discovered about the human brain. This course is a beginning to that goal.
Class materials. You are given all the material you need to do well on the exams. Powerpoints
for all lectures are posted to Blackboard – print out those documents, bring them to class,
listen to me, take notes and read the assignments in the text and you will know what you
need to know. The trick is this – do not fall behind. Do not assume that you can, in a single
night, grasp what I have told you in the previous week. A decade of teaching students on this
campus tells me there is no way you can succeed with that strategy. So come to class, go over
each powerpoint before class and review every lecture the day you hear it – then go back and
look at earlier lectures. Do this every day and you will come understand everything important
that I have to tell you.
Exams. The course is divided into four sections and an exam is given after every section. I do
not give multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank or true-false exams. My exams require short
answers – I will provide you with many examples so that you can see what I mean. They will
demand a large measure of understanding from you. They will not ask you to regurgitate facts – I
do not like students puking on my exams. You will not be rewarded for regurgitation and if you
insist on writing everything you know about the subject I will draw a red line through it all and
1
ask you, “Which part of this mess is the answer to the question?” I value clarity of thought and
brevity in answers. You are not to write essays and I will not grade you on grammar or
composition. I want to know if you understand the question and know the answer. You should
leave me with no doubt about that.
My exams are rolling cumulative. That means I ask questions on the second exam that deal
with issues covered not only in the second quarter of the course but also in the first quarter (those
things that had been the subject of the first exam). And on the third exam you will see questions
that deal with principles you should have learned in the first three quarters. The final exam is
clearly cumulative. I do this to avoid what students at the medical school call a “data dump”, by
which they mean the wholesale flushing of everything they had learned for a previous exam. I
will make clear as we go along what I consider to be the vital principles that you will need to
carry from one part of the course to the next. You should appreciate this testing strategy
punishes anyone who crams for exams and rewards everyone who systematically and consistently
prepares for exams.
You will notice exams are planned for the first 75-minute class, usually on Mondays (which
gives you the weekend to incorporate principles taught the previous week). We will use the
second 75-minute class time to start something new. You should complete your exam, take a
break and get ready to go on. Summers are that way around here.
Grading. Each of the exams counts for 33% of your grade. Assigning grades is simple. At the
end of the course I will add up the scores to all the exams and determine the top 10% of the class.
So if 40 students take the course, I will figure out the top 4. They will get A+’s. The 5th highest
score will be assigned the value of 100%. If, for example, the 5th highest score in a class of 40 is
360/400 points I will treat the 360 as a 100% and I will assign all other grades on a strict
percentile basis. 90% or above is an A or A-, 80-89% is a B+, B or B-, 70-79% is a C+, C or C-.
With the above example of a 360 being the 5th highest score, anyone scoring above a 324 will
earn an A or A- and anyone scoring between 288 and 323 will earn a B of some sort. This does
two things, closely related – 1) It makes sure that if I go off the deep end and ask an impossibly
difficult exam that only a genius or two could pass no one suffers from my mistake; 2) It makes it
quite possible that everyone in this class will earn an A of some sort. As a result, you are in
competition with no one in this course. I encourage all of you to help one another during all
hours of the semester EXCEPT for exam time.
Ethics. Policy on academic dishonesty – aka cheating – is simple. If I suspect you of cheating
I will send you to Dean Dorothy Shepard and I will press to give you an F in the course.
Cheating is bad, ‘mkay, if for no other reason than it shows a fundamental lack of respect for the
University, the Neuroscience Program and me. Do not cheat. Do not think of cheating. Do not
dream of cheating. Do not dream of thinking of cheating. I will detect it if you do and I will see
that you are punished for it.
2
SCHEDULE OF LECTURES AND EXAMS
July 2
Division of labor: Specialization in the nervous system
It’s all about shape: What neurons look like
July 4
Ions, ions everywhere: The basis for all neuronal activity
Keeping neurons safe and happy and fast: The function of glia
July 6
Soup or spark? Chemical and electrical signaling in the brain
This is your brain on drugs: Neurotransmitters and neuropharmacology
July 9
Exam 1
Growing up good: The embryology of the nervous system
July 11
All the pieces fit together: Mechanisms of development
Old dog and old tricks: Things that all sensory systems do
July 13
Where it all comes together: Function of the cerebral cortex
Speak up: The neurobiology of audition and language
July 16
In living color: Visual system mechanisms
It hurts when I do that: Analgesics, natural and otherwise
July 18
What is that smell? Getting used to an odor
A taste of things to come: The gustatory system
July 20
Knee-jerk reaction: Simple circuits in the brain and spinal cord
How to throw a baseball: Motor systems and the control of complex acts
July 23
Second Exam (Covering Lectures up to July 20)
Feeling good in the neighborhood: Reward systems of the CNS
July 25
Falling in love again: The neurobiology of romantic & maternal love
Biggest bang for the buck: The Hypothalamus
July 27
Difference between boys and girls: The sexually dimorphic brain
Remembrance of things past: Memory and the brain
July 30
Direct deposit: Cellular basis of learning and memory
All in good time: Biological rhythms and sleep
Aug 1
Self-destruction: Neurodegenerative Diseases
Going over to the dark side: Auto-immune Diseases
Aug 3
Final Exam
3
4