Lecture

Brain Function: Experiments and Mechanisms

Graph Chat

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.

Description

This lecture discusses the key types of experiments needed to understand brain function causally and mechanistically, including correlating neural activity with behavior, manipulating neural activity, and using computational models. It also explores Karl Popper's view on hypothesis falsification, similarities between human and mouse brains, the Cre-LoxP system for genetic manipulation, two-photon microscopy for high-resolution brain imaging, calcium-sensitive fluorophores for measuring brain function, recording signals with extracellular electrodes, membrane potential recording of sparse cell types, channelrhodopsin-2, and optogenetic tools for inhibiting cell populations.

Official source

Related concepts (26)

Lateralization of brain function

The lateralization of brain function (or hemispheric dominance/ latralisation ) is the tendency for some neural functions or cognitive processes to be specialized to one side of the brain or the other. The median longitudinal fissure separates the human brain into two distinct cerebral hemispheres, connected by the corpus callosum. Although the macrostructure of the two hemispheres appears to be almost identical, different composition of neuronal networks allows for specialized function that is different in each hemisphere.

Human brain

The human brain is the central organ of the human nervous system, and with the spinal cord makes up the central nervous system. The brain consists of the cerebrum, the brainstem and the cerebellum. It controls most of the activities of the body, processing, integrating, and coordinating the information it receives from the sense organs, and making decisions as to the instructions sent to the rest of the body. The brain is contained in, and protected by, the skull bones of the head.

Neural circuit

A neural circuit (also known as a biological neural network BNNs) is a population of neurons interconnected by synapses to carry out a specific function when activated. Multiple neural circuits interconnect with one another to form large scale brain networks. Neural circuits have inspired the design of artificial neural networks, though there are significant differences. Early treatments of neural networks can be found in Herbert Spencer's Principles of Psychology, 3rd edition (1872), Theodor Meynert's Psychiatry (1884), William James' Principles of Psychology (1890), and Sigmund Freud's Project for a Scientific Psychology (composed 1895).

Brain

A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ in a vertebrate's body. In a human, the cerebral cortex contains approximately 14–16 billion neurons, and the estimated number of neurons in the cerebellum is 55–70 billion. Each neuron is connected by synapses to several thousand other neurons.

Neural oscillation

Neural oscillations, or brainwaves, are rhythmic or repetitive patterns of neural activity in the central nervous system. Neural tissue can generate oscillatory activity in many ways, driven either by mechanisms within individual neurons or by interactions between neurons. In individual neurons, oscillations can appear either as oscillations in membrane potential or as rhythmic patterns of action potentials, which then produce oscillatory activation of post-synaptic neurons.

Related lectures (55)

Neural Signals and Signal Processing

Explores neuronal signals, brain organization, measurement techniques, and MRI principles.

Neural Signal Recording: Electrode Types and Applications

Explores various electrode types for neural signal recording and their applications in in-vivo and in-vitro settings.

In vivo electrophysiology MOOC: Cellular Mechanisms of Brain Function

Explores in vivo electrophysiology techniques for studying brain function through extracellular potentials and whole-cell recordings.

Understanding Proprioception: Neural Network Models

Explores how neural networks can help understand proprioception and muscle contraction.

Introduction to Systems Neuroscience: Memory Systems Overview