Graduate Courses in Neuroscience

Hutchinson Teaching

Numerous courses are offered at UW-Madison in neuroscience and related areas. Below is a partial list of neuroscience courses that may be of particular interest to graduate students in the Program.

Course	Title	Summary
Biochemistry 601	Protein and Enzyme Structure and Function	Protein structure and dynamics, protein folding, physical organic chemistry of enzymatic catalysis, analysis of enzyme kinetics and receptor-ligand interactions, and enzymatic reaction mechanisms.
Biochemistry 630	Cellular Signal Transduction Mechanisms	Coverage of human hormones, growth factors and other mediators; emphasis on hormone action and biosynthesis, cell biology of hormone-prodcuing cells.
Biochemistry 660	Biochemical Techniques	Survey of modern biochemical techniques.
Biomedical Engineering 601	Problem-Based Learning in Clinical Neuroengineering Seminar	This course is based on a Problem Based Learning curriculum were teams of students from diverse backgrounds will work together to solve hypothetical or real problems related to Clinical Neuroengineering.
Communicative Disorders 850	Anatomy, Physiology and Psychophysics of Audition	Study of anatomy and physiology of the human auditory system, with an emphasis on the peripheral system. Basic concepts in psychoacoustics are discussed with reference to the normal and pathological auditory systems.
Forest Ecology & Management 571	Statistical Methods for Bioscience I	Descriptive statistics, distributions, one- and two-sample normal inference, power, one-way ANOVA, simple linear regression, categorical data, non-parametric methods; underlying assumpltions and diagnostic work.
Genetics 466	General Genetics	Genetics in eukaryotes and prokaryotes.
Genetics 612	Prokaryotic Molecular Biology	Molecular basis of bacterial physiology and genetics with emphasis on molecular mechanisms; topics include nucleic acid-protein interactions, transcription, translation, replication, recombination, regulation of gene expression.
Kinesiology 721	Neural Basis for Movement.	How the central nervous system organizes skilled human performance. Evalution of neuromuscular mechanisms, subserving skills, and the causes and limitations of movement at high speeds and high levels of force.
Kinesiology 861	Principles of Motor Control and Learning	Theories and experimental findings in motor control, acquisition and retention of motor behavior. Topics: attention, models of motor control, kinesthesis, learning, information processing, memory, transfer, feedback, age ad gender differences.
Medical Physics 473	Imaging in Medicine	Imaging in Medicine. The conceptual, mathematical and statistical aspects of imaging science, and a survey from this formal viewpoint of various medical imaging modalities, including filmscreen radiography, positron and x-ray computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging.
Neuroscience 610	Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience	Lectures concern basic membrane biophysics, biophysics and molecular biology of voltage- and ligand-gated ion channels and gap junctions, synaptic modulation through second messengers, transduction in photoreceptors and hair cells, neuronal circuits of the retina and of the cochlear nuclei, and the function of glial cells.
Neuroscience 611	Systems Neuroscience	Introduction to the anatomy and physiology of the mammalian nervous system. Lectures will cover the neuroanatomy of the major subdivisions of the human brain, the major sensory and motor systems, and higher order functions. Lab/discussions sections will emphasize readings from the primary leterature and hands-on dissections.
Neuroscience 625	Brain Cell Cultures	Basic skills to culture cells from the central nervous system (cortical neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes.) Basic skills to characterize different cultures.
Neuroscience 629	Molecular Mechanisms in Memory	Normal functions of synaptic proteins and how they may change to produce the plastic changes associated with memory.
Neuroscience 630	Neuronal Mechanisms for Sensation and Memory in Cerebral Cortex	Current literature will be considered in lectures and discussions that provide insight into how the cerebral cortex processes sensory information to generate and store cogent representations of the external world. The course includes laboratory exercises and demonstrations.
Neuroscience 635	Neurobiology of Disease	This seminar will relate major categories of neurological and ophthalmological disease to fundemental topics in neurobiology.
Neuroscience 670	Stem Cells and the Central Nervous System	The topics that are covered in this course include: mbryonic stem cells, adult stem cells, and the transplantation of embryonic and adult stem cells to developing and adult CNS for experimental and therapeutic purposes.
Neuroscience 675	Selected topics	Topics may vary. Topics in past have included neuroethology, functional imaging of cognitive disorders & molecular mechanisms of brain damage.
Neuroscience 700	Professional Development for Graduate Students in the Biomedical Sciences	Survival skills for graduate students. Topics include writing a predoctoral fellowship, giving an effective seminar presentation, and ethics.
Neuroscience 765	Developmental Neuroscience	Analysis of neural development with emphasis on experimental approaches. Combination of lectures and discussions of primary literature. Topics include neural induction, patterning, mechanisms of axon guidance, neural crest cell migration and differentiation, cortical development, and synapse formation and elimination.
Neuroscience 900	Neuroscience Seminar	Current topics in neuroscience.
Pathology 750	Cellular and Molecular Biology/Pathology	Emphasis on current understanding of molecular and cellular mechanisms; cell and tissue organization; intracellular sorting; cell migration and growth.
Pathology 751	Cellular and Molecular Biology of Aging	Cellular and molecular pathophysiology of human disease typically afflicting the aged, such as Alzheimer's, osteoporosis, Type II diabetes and arthritis, experimental systems to study aging.
Pharmacology 711	Neurotransmitter Receptors and Ion Channels	A consideration of neurotransmitter receptors and ion channels from a molecular perspective. Emphasis will be on current concepts in the field.
Physiology 610	Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience	Lectures concern basic membrane biophysics, biophysics and molecular biology of voltage- and ligand-gated ion channels and gap junctions, synaptic modulation through second messengers, transduction in photoreceptors and hair cells, neuronal circuits of the retina and of the cochlear nuclei, and the function of glial cells.
Psychology 711	Current Topics in Psychology
Psychology 733	Perceptual and Cognitive Sciences	Lectures on current approaches to perceptual and cognitive sciences.
Psychology 954	Seminar in Physiological Psychology	Topics may include higher brain functions, neural correlates of learning, brain mechanisms of reward.
Statistics 572	Statistical Methods for Bioscience II	Polynomial regression, multiple regression, two-way Anova with and without interaction, split-plot design, subsampling, analysis of covariance, elementary sampling, introduction to bioassay.
Therapeutic Science 713	Neural Basic of Normal and Pathological Movement	Lectures and discussion directed toward an understanding of the neural substrates underlying movement in man.
Zoology 619	Biology of Mind	Transitions from primate through early hominid to modern human intelligence. Modern studies of brain mechanisms underlying vision, emotions, language, memory, and learning.
Zoology 625	Development of the Nervous System	Survey of the principles guiding neuronal development. Course will cover descriptive and experimental analyses of deelopmental mechanisms underlying the formation of both vertebrate and invertebrate nervous systems.