Experimental Neurophysiology: Theory and Practice

COURSE DESCRIPTION

While you are reading this text, billions of neurons in your brain are electrically talking to each other. All your thoughts and movements are generated by the coordinated movement of electrically charged particles into and out of these neurons. Therefore, electricity in the brain forms the basis of who we are.

In the course “Experimental Neurophysiology – theory and practice”, you will learn about experimental techniques that you can use to measure the tiny currents and voltage changes in the brain. These range from recording signals from within single neurons by using tiny glass electrodes, to recording the summed activity of thousands of neurons simultaneously, using extracellular recording electrodes. By starting at the single neuron level, and slowly moving up to networks of neurons during the week, you will get a full overview of what we can measure, and the challenges that come with each level.

Additionally, the afternoons will consist of hands-on experiments at each of these different levels. Finally, the course will end the week with an interactive masterclass with a world-renowned expert in this field from the USA. The course will be focused on recording electrical activity in the rodent brain.

Together, this course should help you in interpreting electrophysiological experiments related to your own research project, be it in literature, seminars or discussions with peers. Additionally we hope that it will inspire you to perhaps implement such experiments in your own research, or to set up collaborations with other electrophysiologists.