New undergrads

Reading, summer 2013 (AKA Undergraduate Reading Group; AKA URG):

We want to help our undergrads get caught up on our literature so they can quickly gain a background in vision science and be stronger contributors to the lab.

First reading, Meeting June 10th:

Read the first 3 chapters of Hubel, 1995, available free online. You can also buy this as a Scientific American monograph. This is a terrific and introduction to systems neuroscience that is really easy to digest.

Second reading, Meeting June 19th:

Read chapters 4, 5, 6, and 9 of Hubel, 1995, available free online. Check out the videos of LGN and V1 recordings.

Third reading, Meeting June 26th:

Last week's reading, reprise. (Really just Chapters 6 and 9, plus those weird figures in 5 if anyone's interested.)

Fourth reading, Meeting July 3rd:

Li et al, 2008. Awesome paper! Figure assignments are in your email.

Fifth reading, Meeting July 10th:

Van Hooser et al, 2012. Nicely follows Li et al, and expands on the question of what the pre-existing bias might look like and how it's influenced. (This one was really fun, guys, and I'm writing down for posterity that you did a good job with it.)

OK. Now it gets a little serious.

Sixth reading, Meeting July 17th:

Kaneko et al, 2008 (aka Stryker paper). Delving into some ocular dominance work with Steve as your captain and Arani as first mate. Figure assignments in your email boxes.

Seventh reading, Meeting July 24th:

White and Fitzpatrick, 2007. This is a review of cortical map development, again from the Fitz lab. Figure responsibilities in your inbox.

Eighth reading, Meeting July 31st:

Julia and Ameya present Turrigiano et al, 1998. With recommended reading of the News and Views (linked to at the bottom of the abstract - try reading this first!), and the Turrigiano/Nelson 2004 review here.

Future ideas:

Topics:

what are spikes - how to read them

sensory stim causes spiking - response selectivity

rate of spikes vs timing of spikes

excitation, inhibition

stdp - what it means - how it works - what does it achieve

vision - retina to lgn to cortex

cortex - layers, excit and inhib neurons

what do we mean by receptive fields

how lgn responds to light

how cortex responds to light - OS, DS

OS, DS maps

how virus used to express genes

optogenetics - basic idea

Readings:

1. PONS - Kandel et al: chapters 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 25, 26, 27

2. Vision and cortical map development. White LE, Fitzpatrick D. Neuron. 2007 Oct 25;56(2):327-38. Review.

3. Spike timing-dependent plasticity of neural circuits. Dan Y, Poo MM. Neuron. 2004 Sep 30;44(1):23-30. Review.

4. The development and application of optogenetics. Fenno L, Yizhar O, Deisseroth K. Annu Rev Neurosci. 2011;34:389-412. doi: 10.1146/annurev-neuro-061010-113817. Review.

5. Early exploration of the visual cortex. Hubel DH, Wiesel TN. Neuron. 1998 Mar;20(3):401-12.

6. Mapping receptive fields in primary visual cortex. Ringach DL. J Physiol. 2004 Aug 1;558(Pt 3):717-28. Epub 2004 May 21. Review.