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.