Education year 4

Behavioural neuroscience
Obligatory for students who want to qualify for the registration as “Artikel 9 functionaris” according to the “Wet op de dierproeven”

This course will focus on brain-behaviour relations from a comparative point of view, with special interest for cognitive functions like memory and spatial cognition. The aim of the course is to get a further insight into the study of brain-cognition in animals, the relevance of animal studies for the human, and the inherent methodological possibilities and problems. Emphasis is placed on self-study and practical work.

A major part of the course consists of practical work. Behavioural experiments include open-field behaviour and spatial discrimination learning in brain-damaged rats. Videotaped sessions will be used to evaluate the open-field behaviour. With respect to spatial discrimination learning the raw data from a previous experiment will be given (on floppy) to the students who will have to formulate hypotheses and operationalisations and analyse the data statistically. The brains of these animals have been processed and the students will have to evaluate the lesion. A fresh-up course on neuroanatomy will be given using microscopic slides and formalin-fixed brains that can be used to make and study various sections through the brain and to learn to use a brain atlas.

Theoretical aspects of the relation between brain and cognition will focus on animal models of neuropsychiatric diseases. In relation to the practical work, the participants will also study literature on animal memory and spatial cognition, and on the neural substrates of memory. Each student will study a few publications and present the results orally at the end of the course. This literature will also be used for the theoretical background of the final written report.