(1.25 units)

How does the brain form new memories? How are we able to walk without consciously thinking about it? What happens in the brain during epileptic seizures, and how might we treat them? We will address these questions and more as we explore how networks of neurons coordinate to perform complex functions which give rise to everyday behaviors that most people take for granted. Matlab will be used as a tool to model brain circuits in order to understand how such networks function, and we will also cover essential techniques for analyzing experimental data (such as determining the dominant frequencies in EEG recordings, analyzing fMRI, sorting spikes, etc.) Prerequisite: MATH 110