Course Structure and Modules

This module introduces students to the neural basis of behavior in Caenorhabditis elegans using advanced genetic, optical, and behavioral tools. Students learn to record and manipulate neural activity in intact, behaving animals using optogenetics, calcium imaging, and precisely controlled sensory stimulation across olfactory, mechanical, and thermal modalities. After initial training in experimental design, imaging, and Python-based analysis, students develop independent projects that explore topics such as sensory processing, behavioral adaptation, and neural circuit dynamics. With access to an extensive library of worm strains and molecular tools, students gain insight into how neural circuits generate behavior in a fully mapped nervous system.

This module explores how the brains of weakly electric fish extract and process behaviorally relevant sensory information. Students study how electric organ discharges (EODs) are used for communication and object detection, and how neurons in the hindbrain and midbrain respond to these signals. Through hands-on experience with extracellular and in vivo whole-cell patch clamp recordings, students investigate sensory coding, feedback pathways, and ion channel contributions to neural responses. The second week is dedicated to independent projects, which may explore topics such as prey detection, nonlinear sensory processing, or under-characterized electrosensory systems.

This module introduces students to the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model for investigating sensorimotor integration and neural computation. Students will have an opportunity to work on projects that make use of modern methods in Drosophila including quantitative behavior, neurophysiology, quantitative anatomy and quantitative data analysis. They will gain hands-on experience with behavioral quantification, electrophysiology, two-photon calcium imaging, and genetic manipulation of neural circuits. Students will conduct independent projects that combine behavior and physiology to address questions in vision, proprioception, audition, motor control, and navigation, highlighting how modern tools in this species are used to answer fundamental questions in systems neuroscience.

In Cycle 1, all of the students work on the leech and crab as experimental systems. Students learn neurophysiology and neuroanatomical techniques, including intracellular electrophysiological recordings in current clamp and voltage clamp configuration, extracellular recordings, and intracellular dye injection, and MATLAB instruction. The goal is to identify neurons by their electrophysiological properties and learn about their electrical and chemical interactions. Towards the end of the cycle students work in pairs on individual research projects.

This module explores local and large-scale neural dynamics in the cortex, hippocampus, and striatum of behaving mice, focusing on brain states, oscillations, neuromodulation, and memory-related activity. Students choose from several cutting-edge approaches, including calcium imaging in head-fixed or freely moving mice, silicon probe recordings in head-fixed animals, fiber photometry to monitor dopamine levels, and video monitoring of behavior, and gain experience in collecting and analyzing large neural and behavioral datasets. Independent projects examine how neural activity relates to spontaneous behavior, sensory-motor states, spatial coding, and neuromodulatory signaling, providing insight into the circuits underlying complex cognitive and behavioral functions.

In this cycle we will explore sensory coding in the rodent somatosensory system through a broad range of techniques with a focus on exploration of novel scientific questions. Students will learn in vivo whole cell recording techniques for recording sensory evoked synaptic and spiking responses of anesthetized rats as well as methods for behavioural and structural analysis of the somatosensory system. The module will design and work together to address one novel question for natural sensory coding which will be tackled from a variety of angles, thus educating students on the scientific process from conception to discovery.

This module uses the crustacean stomatogastric nervous system as a model to explore cellular and network mechanisms underlying rhythmic motor behaviors. Students investigate how central pattern generator circuits produce flexible rhythmic outputs. Through hands-on electrophysiology, including voltage clamp analysis and dynamic clamp simulation of ionic and synaptic currents, students examine synaptic transmission, ionic conductances, and neuromodulator-elicited cellular and network plasticity. General principles are compared in rhythmic circuitry in a rodent thalamic slice preparation. The first week builds foundational skills; the second focuses on student-driven research projects that often yield novel insights into rhythmic circuit function and plasticity.

In this module, students use larval zebrafish to explore the neural basis of sensorimotor behavior through closed-loop behavioral assays and whole-brain calcium imaging. Working hands-on, students design and conduct behavioral experiments, build their own lightsheet microscopes, and perform fast volumetric imaging during visual stimulation. Data analysis emphasizes motion correction, source extraction, and techniques such as dimensionality reduction and regression. This module highlights the power of combining behavior and brain-wide activity mapping, and runs in parallel with the Drosophila module, enabling cross-species comparisons of neural computation and experimental strategies.

Not offered in 2026.

This cycle will investigate the brain circuitry that subserves the complex, learned vocalizations of songbirds. We will investigate how and where auditory and motor information about song is encoded in the brain using in vivo extracellular electrophysiology and calcium imaging in adult zebra finches. Experiments will be performed in male birds, who learn to sing a complex motor sequence, and female birds, who do not sing but do attend to the spectro-temporal properties of male songs when identifying individuals and evaluating potential mates.

In the first week, students will characterize auditory responses in multiple song nuclei in anesthetized birds, and then record singing-related activity and auditory responses in awake, behaving birds. Students will also be introduced to calcium-imaging techniques to record the spatiotemporal activity of many neurons simultaneously using miniature head-mounted microscopes in awake-behaving birds. In the second week, students will design and implement independent projects to investigate a specific question regarding the sensory and/or motor coding of a complex, procedurally-learned behavior.