MIT Course Numbers: MAS.881 ~ 9.422 ~ 20.452
Instructor: E.S. Boyden
Units: H-level ~ 3-0-9 Units
Time: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3-4:30pm
Place: Room E15-135
Special note: Class sessions will be recorded for posting to Youtube (there will be "off-the record" portions at beginning and end of each class), starting 2010

Description

Covers principles underlying current and future technologies for brain analysis and engineering, for neurology, psychiatry, and neuroscience. Focuses on using biophysical, biochemical, and anatomical models to understand technology design constraints governing ability to observe and alter brain function. Topics include functional magnetic resonance imaging, electromagnetic recording/stimulation, neuropharmacology, optical cellular imaging, and gene/stem-cell therapy. Design projects by student teams. Enrollment limited to 28 students.
 

Schedule

Part I. The Primitives for Engineering the Brain

Thurs 9/10, Overview. Introductions. Sign the release forms for filming.
Project candidates: Stanley Center Dataset, Ataxia Modeling of Therapy.
Tues 9/15, Circuit elements of the nervous system. Neurons, glia, blood vessels. Channels, receptors, DNA, RNA.
Thurs 9/17, Macroscopic circuits, brain region connectivity and architecture, circuit dynamics.
Tues 9/29, Microscopic circuits, cell type connectivity, disease, gliocircuits.
Thurs 10/1, Paper discussions - Circuit elements of the nervous system.

Part II. Technologies for Readout

Tues 10/6, Noninvasve macrocircuit readout. fMRI, photoacoustic readout, MEG, EEG.
Thurs 10/15, Microcircuit readout. Electrodes, optical imaging, two-photon microscopy.
Tues 10/22, NO CLASS - SFN.
Tues 10/27, Paper discussions - Macrocircuit and microcircuit readout. Midterm presentations.

Part III. Technologies for Stimulation and Control

Thurs 10/29, Microcircuit stimulation. DBS, infrared optical stimulation, optical sensitizers such as channelrhodopsin-2/halorhodopsin.
Tues 11/3, Macrocircuit stimulation. TMS, tDCS, ultrasound.
Tues 11/10, Paper discussions - Microcircuit and macrocircuit stimulation.
Tues 11/17, Gene therapy, stem cells, proteins and biologics.
Thurs 11/19, Pharmacology, chemicals, nanoparticles.
Tues 11/24, Principles of neuroengineering: synthetic neurobiology to understand and engineer the brain.
Thurs 12/3, Paper discussions - Gene therapy, stem cells, and pharmacology.

Part IV. Final Presentations

Tues 12/8, first set of teams.
Thurs 12/10, last set of teams.