Lecture Notes: The
Nervous System
September 8
The major topic for today is the nervous system and its origination and control of behavior or how does material "stuff" behave.
Slides for this series of lectures are located here.
The
slides from 1 to 35 cover the next two lectures, and today's lecture
will cover
the first three topics below, the next two being discussed the
following class.
-
Introduction to the system, its evolution, major functions and
organizational
features
-
Micro and macro approaches (neurons and synapses vs. brain and brain
parts).
-
The neuron: a model of its structure & functions & how signals
start, move along and end.
-
The synapse and how excitatory and inhibitory synapses operate; a basic
model.
-
Reflexes, putting it all together to get real behavior.
-
Examples of the operation of the micro level system.
-
The operation of the micro level system--building complex behavior out
of simple building blocks.
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