Lectures on Computational Neuroscience

These "webified" introductory lectures on computational neuroscience are derived from lecture notes for an introductory biomedical engineering course at the University of Colorado. The course, Brains, Minds, and Computers is a survey of introductory concepts in neuroscience and artificial neural networks, for upper division undergraduate and graduate students in Electrical and Computer Engineering.

In these two 70 minute lectures, I used videotapes of tutorial simulations performed with the GENESIS simulator, which I've replaced with still images in the web version. Students will get the most out of these lectures if they have had a basic introduction to neuron membrane properties and signaling in an introductory neuroscience text similar to the ones in this list. Of course, it is even better if it is possible for the students to interactively run the tutorials themselves. Detailed instructions for using the tutorials are contained within the GENESIS distribution and in The Book of GENESIS: Exploring Realistic Neural Models with the GEneral NEural SImulation System.

Dave Beeman

• Introduction to Computational Neuroscience, and Modeling of Action Potentials
  • Introduction to Computational Neuroscience
  • The Hodgkin-Huxley Model
• Modeling Dendrites and Synapses
• Modeling More Complex Cells and Networks
  • The Traub Model Hippocampal Pyramidal Cell
  • The Piriform Cortex Simulation

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