Systems Neuroscience
Fall semester 2022
INI415

Organizer: Daniel C. Kiper

Time: Tuesday, 8.15 am to 10:00
Location: Y35 F 32
First lecture on Tuesday 20.9


This course focuses on the treatment of information in primate cortex. We will learn about the sensory, motor, and cognitive systems that underlie human behavior. In addition to the lectures, we have one hour of exercises each week. These will consist in readings you have to do, as well as practical excercises. You will be informed about these requirements in the course of the lectures. There will be a final exam that covers the material covered in the lectures, and the additional readings given as exercises.

If you'd like to consult a good text book, I recommend: "Principles of Neural Science", edited by Kandel, Schwartz and Jessell, 4th edition.

Language: English (but you can speak german...)

If you have a question, just contact me (kiper@ini.ethz.ch).

The exam is a multiple-choice written exam that takes place on the last day of the course.
It will take place on December 20, from 8.15 to 9.15, in room Y35 F 32 (our usual lecture hall).

20.9: Introduction, and start of visual system.
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27.9 Vision continued (same slides)
Mandatory exercises for next week:
Read the following chapter on the primary visual cortex
Answer the questions in this document (the correct answers will be given at class onset next week).

Additional readings and information for those interested:
Retina: the book The Retina: An Approachable Part of the Brain (Belknap Press) by J. Dowling, is a bit old but good.
You can also find good info online

Instructions to find your blind spot.
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11.10 Auditory system
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 18.10 Auditory system continued (same slides)
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25.10 Attentional mechanisms in the cortex (topic by popular demand...)
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1 and 8.11 Somatosensory system (slides here)
Mandatory reading this review of the auditory cortex.
And here some questions (that do not need to be handed in, and will be addressed next week in the class)

Additional (not mandatory) reading: review of attentional mechamisms in the brain
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15.11 Vestibular system
Here is a mandatory paper on somatosensory processing
And exercises (to be corrected in class, no need to hand them in).

Not mandatory: a paper on soft-touch

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22.11 The chemical senses
Mandatory reading (about vestibular function): review of motion sickness
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29.11 Motor  systems
Exercise for the chemical senses: identify the herb distributed in class....

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6.12. End of motor systems and autonomic nervous system

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13.12 Limbic system...an emotional theme for the last lecture :-)