V80.0210/V23.0211 Fall 2006, Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

Fall 2006       

Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

Faculty:

Prof. Robert Shapley, Rm 1059 Meyer      Prof. Chiye Aoki, 1056A Meyer

Phone: 212 998-7798, shapley@cns.nyu.edu Phone: 212 998-3929, chiye@cns.nyu.edu

Office hours: By Appointment            Office hours: By appointment

                         T.A. My Ai (Mimi) Trinh,  trinh@cns.nyu.edu lectures 

Schedule:

All lectures will be held in room 815, Meyer, Mon and Wed, 11-12:15.  

All laboratories will be held in room 612 Silver Bldg, Wed. 2-6.   

Syllabus:  Click here.

Reading Material:

The required text readings appear as ‘LK’ and ‘MQ’ in the syllabus. Articles will be assigned at a later date.

LK: The Neuron, Cell and Molecular Biology, I.B. Levitan & L. K. Kaczmarek (Oxford U Press, 2002)

MQ: Meyer and Quenzer, Psychopharmacology:  Drugs, the Brain and Behavior (Sinauer, 1997)

PPW: Fine Structure of the Nervous System, Peters, Palay and Webster 

For supplemental reading, the following books are recommended and will be on reserve: 

G. Fain, Molecular and Cellular Physiology of Neurons, (Academic Press 1999)  and 

The Biochemical Basis of Neuropharmacology, JR Cooper, FE Bloom& R.H. Roth (Oxford UP. 1995)

Fundamental Neuroscience, Zigmond, Bloom, Landis, Roberts and Squire, (AP 1999)

Introduction to Molecular Neurobiology, Z. Hall (Sinauer, 1992)

Exams and Grading:

There will be two 70 minute exams and a 2-hour final exam. The first exam will cover material taught through October 16 and will count for 25% of the final grade. The second exam will cover material taught through November 10 and will also count for 25% of the final grade.  Material taught in November and December will be included in the comprehensive, cumulative Final Exam, which will count for 50% of the final grade. Exams will ask mostly for essay-type answers. 

Term Paper: 

One 5-10 page term paper may be used to substitute for a low grade on Exam 1 or Exam 2. The paper must be written on a mutually agreed-upon topic, based on one or more articles selected by the instructors. The due date for the term paper is December 11. The paper should contain the following sections: hypothesis or question addressed by the scientist(s), background and significance of the topic chosen, description of the experimental design and results, YOUR critique of the design and results presented in the paper (e.g., whether the results strengthen or weaken the hypothesis, whether any more experiments are needed to further test the hypothesis, your suggestion for a revised hypothesis, what new questions emerge as a consequence of the results obtained from the experiments).  In order to assure a grade B or better for the paper, a best-effort rough draft should be submitted no later than November 27 and a one-to-one meeting with either Dr. Aoki or Dr. Shapley subsequent to that submission is advised.  Plagiarism in the term paper will lead to a grade, F, for the course and will be reported to the Dean's Office.   

Scientific writing is an important skill to develop. You are welcome to submit a paper, even if you are satisfied with your grades.