Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Sessions: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

Course Description

This course, as a part of MIT's Center for Neurobiological Engineering curriculum, explores cutting-edge neurotechnology that is essential for advances in all aspects of neuroscience, including improvements in existing methods as well as the development, testing and discussion of completely new paradigms. Readings and in-class sessions cover the fields of electrophysiology, light microscopy, cellular engineering, optogenetics, electron microscopy, MRI / fMRI, and MEG / EEG. The course is designed with lectures that cover the background, context, and theoretical descriptions of neurotechnologies, and labs, which provide firsthand demonstrations as well as in situ lab tours.

Please see the Course Publicity page about the blog series by Amy Robinson for Scientific American and EyeWire.  

Grading

ACTIVITIES PERCENTAGES
In-class quizzes 30%
Homework Assignments 30%
Final Project 30%
Participation 10%

Course Calendar

Please note that there was no lab corresponding to lectures 1, 12, 14, and 15.

SES # TOPICS KEY DATES
1 Course Introduction; Overview of Neurotechnology  
2

Advanced Microscopy

Guest lecturers: Prof. Elly Nedivi, Prof. Peter So

 
Lab 2

Advanced Microscopy Imaging

Guest Lecturer: Kalen Berry, Elijah Yew

 
3

High-density Electrophysiology

Guest lecturer: Prof. Matt Wilson

Quiz 1
Lab 3

Digital Electrophysiology

Guest Lecturer: Jon Newman

 
4

Microfluidics and Cell Engineering

Guest Lecturers: Prof. Roger Kamm & Sebastien Uzel

Quiz 2
Lab 4 Microfluidics and Cell Engineering (cont.)  
5

EM-based Connectomics

Guest Lecturer: Dr. Daniel Berger

 Quiz 3
Lab 5

EM-based Connectomics (cont.)

Field Trip: Lichtman lab at Harvard

 
6 Optogenetics Quiz 4
Homework 1 due
Lab 6a Optogenetics (cont.)  
Lab 6b Auto Patch Clamping  
7 & Lab

Virus Engineering

Guest Lecturer: Dr. Ian Wickersham

Quiz 5 
8

Magnetoencephalography (MEG)

Guest Lecturer: Prof. Dimitrios Pantazis

Quiz 6
Lab 8 MEG (cont.)  
9

Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

Guest Lecturer: Dr. Atsushi Takahashi

Quiz 7 
Lab 9 Structural MRI  
10

Functional and Molecular MRI

Guest Lecturer: Dr. Atsushi Takahashi

Homework 2 due 

Lab 10 Functional and Molecular MRI (cont.)  
11

High Throughput Neuroscience

Guest Lecturer: Dr. Limor Freifeld

Quiz 8 
Lab 11 High Throughput Neuroscience Yanik Lab  
12 Discussion of Final Project Guidelines  
13

Whole-brain Optical Imaging

Guest Lecturer: Prof. Kwanghun Chung

Quiz 9
Homework 3 due
Lab 13 CLARITY  
14 Final Presentations I  
15 Final Presentations II Final project due