90923 - NEUROBIOTECHNOLOGY

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

Al termine del corso, lo studente ha conoscenze su background, contesto e metodi delle biotecnologie cellulari e molecolari applicate alle neuroscienze, con particolare attenzione dedicata alle biotecnologie utilizzate per la scoperta di farmaci e ai progressi terapeutici nelle neuropatologie.

Contenuti

Methodological approaches in System Neuroscience research. Sensory receptors: Decoding of sensory information.

Transduction processes in different types of receptors. Primary sensory cortices. Afferent pathways.

Visual perception: From the eye to the primary visual cortex. Somatosensory pathways. Movement control: from the frontal lobe to the muscles.

Functions of the parietal lobe. The associative cortex of the frontal lobe: its role in the action planning and in the interpretation and knowledge of actions executed from others: mirror neurons.

Neural bases of attention.

Emotions: cerebral circuits underlying the emotions.

Language: function and cerebral circuits.

Memory and learning: cellular mechanisms of learning.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation: basis principles and examples of experimental designs.

Brain-machine interfaces.

Testi/Bibliografia

Purves et al., ed Zanichelli, 2005, 2013

Metodi didattici

Frontal lessons using Power Point presentations.

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

The following rules are valid for all the students of the course, including the ERASMUS ones.

Oral examination (COMPULSORY registration in AlmaESAMI. The list will close some days before the date of the exam). The student will present two different subjects from the program, chosen by the examiner. The student have to be at least sufficiently prepared on both topics, in order to pass the exam.Students following lessons (at least 70% of them) have the possibility to perform a presentation of a scientific paper instead of the traditional oral examination.

The final exam aims at assessing and evaluating the achievement of the educational aims:

- knowledge of neurophysiological mechanisms that organize integrative functions of the central nervous system and in particular of the cerebral hemispheres

- knowledge of recent experimental models used to study the highest cognitive functions.

It will be assessed the student's capability to orient within the various topics of physiology program. It will be evaluated with excellence the achievement of a global view of course topics together with a critical use of them, the ability to perform conceptual correlations, the demonstration of both expressive and specific language mastery competence.

Strumenti a supporto della didattica

Lectures will be done in a Power Point presentation format. The material for the slides (e.g. figures, photos) will come mainly from the suggested textbooks. All the relevant teaching material will be available on the designated digital platforms (servers) of the University.

In order to prepare for the exam it is suggested to attend actively the lectures, study from a textbook and use both the notes taken during lectures and the material put by the tutor on the server of the University.

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Rossella Breveglieri