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Introduction to Neuroinformatics HS11

Course Description
Time and Place
Resources
Performance Assessment
Contact

Course Description

The course provides an introduction to the functional properties of neurons. Particularly the description of membrane electrical properties (action potentials, channels), neuronal anatomy, synaptic structures, and neuronal networks. Simple models of computation, learning, and behavior will be explained. Some artificial systems (robot, chip) are presented.

Time and Place

Wednesday, Uni Irchel, room Y35-F-32, Lecture: 10:15-12:00, Exercises: 12:00-12:45

DATE	LECTURER	TOPIC	EXERCISES	SOLUTIONS
21.09.11	Rodney Douglas	Neuroinformatics	Exercise 1	Solution 1
28.09.11	Rodney Douglas	Membrane potentials	Exercise 2	Solution 2
05.10.11	Kevan Martin	Nervous system organization	Exercise 3	Solution 3
12.10.11	Rodney Douglas	Passive (cable) membrane properties	Exercise 4	Solution 4
19.10.11	Rodney Douglas	Action potentials	Exercise 5	Solution 5
26.10.11	Kevan Martin	Synapse 1	Exercise 6	Solution 6
02.11.11	Rodney Douglas	Synapse 2	Exercise 7	Solution 7
09.11.11	Michael Pfeiffer	Plasticity / learning	Exercise 8	Solution 8
16.11.11	Michael Pfeiffer	Rate / event coding	Exercise 9	Solution 9
23.11.11	Matthew Cook	Feed-forward networks	Exercise 10	Solution 10
30.11.11	Matthew Cook	Perceptron Learning Algorithm	Exercise 11	Solution 11
07.12.11	Matthew Cook	Hopfield Networks	Exercise 12	Solution 12
14.12.11	Matthew Cook	Interacting Neural Populations	Exercise 13	Solution 13
21.12.11	Giacomo Indiveri	Neuromorphic VLSI	-	-

Slides from the old HS10/11 lectures are available here.

Resources

There are several good books on the topics covered in the lectures. The following might be worth looking at:

Kandel, Schwartz & Jessell, Principles of Neural Science and Behavior (biology/neuroscience)
Dayan, Abbott, Theoretical Neuroscience: Computational and Mathematical Modeling of Neural Systems (neurophysiology)
Johnston, Wu, Foundations of Cellular Neurophysiology (neurophysiology)
Koch, Biophysics of Computation (neurophysiology)
Nichols, Martin, Wallace, From Neuron to Brain (neuroscience/neurophysiology)
Gerstner, Kistler, Spiking Neuron models (neural networks)
For those not familiar with electrical circuits here you can find a brief introduction on important electrochemical properties of neurons.

Some useful links:

The Nernst/Goldman Equation Simulator

Performance Assessment

To obtain a Testat (the course attendance confirmation) you will be required to attend both lectures and exercise classes, at least 11 over 14. The Testat is compulsory for the registration to the final exam.
Performance will be assed in a final 15 min oral examination in English. The examination will cover both the material of the lectures and of the exercises.
Remember that you need to be electronically registered in order to partecipate to the exam and receive credit points. For more details see the ETHZ Course Catalogue or the UniZH Course Catalogue.
ORAL EXAM DATES: the winter examination session is held in the 4th to the 7th calendar week. The exact dates for the examination will determined by the University and the ETH in december and cannot be changed individually.

Contact

For questions, comments, suggestions, contact the teaching assistants:

Sabina Pfister (sabina@ini.phys.ethz.ch) and Jan Funke (funke@ini.phys.ethz.ch)