UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER Department of Integrative Physiology : NEUROPHYSIOLOGY Spring 2011, MWF 3:00 3:50 pm, MUEN 0046 Instructor: TAs: Roger Enoka, Carlson 202E, 492-7232, enoka@colorado.edu Help session: Thu 2:30-5:00 pm in Clare 210 Matt Holmes (matt99matt@gmail.com) Lead TA Lauren Pierpoint (lauren.pierpoint@colorado.edu) T 8:00-9:50, T 10:00-11:50 Jeff Gould (gouldj@colorado.edu) T 2:00-3:50, T 4:00-5:50 Nicole Gordon (nicole.m.gordon@colorado.edu) T 12:00 1:50, T 6:00-7:50 Your TA will tell you about office hours. Prerequisites: IPHY 2800 Statistics IPHY 3410 Human Anatomy IPHY 3470 Human Physiology I Required Text: Enoka RM. Neuromechanics of Human Movement. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2008. In addition, the following optional text is on reserve in Norlin Library: Kandel ER, Schwartz JH, Jessel TM. Principles of Neural Science, 4th edition. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2000. Clickers: CULearn: Grading: You must purchase an iclicker and immediately register it at CU Connect. Students are responsible for keeping the clicker functional during the semester and are encouraged to bring a spare set of batteries (three AAA) to class. Material related to the course, including outlines of the lectures and information on your grade, is available at http://cuconnect.colorado.edu. Your final grade will be based on your performance on the examinations, in-class questions, assignments, and in the recitations. 1. Examinations (60%) The exams will focus on understanding and applying the material presented in lecture. Each exam will comprise multiple-choice (~9) and short-paragraph (~5) questions, and they are not cumulative. The exams must be taken on the following dates and times: Exam 1 20% Tuesday, February 15 (7:00 8:30 pm) Exam 2 20% Thursday, March 17 (7:00 8:30 pm) Exam 3 20% Tuesday, May 3 (7:30-10:00 pm) There will be no make-up exams, but we will accommodate documented medical emergencies. 2. In-Class Questions (iclicker) (10%) The lectures will be interactive. The instructor will pose questions that the students will answer after discussing the issue with other students. Each in-class question will count for 2 participation points. You may submit written answers to your TA on no more than 3 occasions during the semester when you forget to bring the clicker to class. Page 1
3. Assignments (15%) There will be one assignment each week. It will be posted on CULearn on Monday and will be due by the start of class (3 pm) on the Friday of the same week (except the weeks of Exams 1 and 2). Late assignments will not be accepted or graded. With the exception of equations and drawings, assignments must be typed and printed. Handwritten or e-mailed assignments will not be accepted. 4. Recitations (7.5%) Recitations will supplement the material discussed in lecture. To achieve this goal, the recitations will combine tutorials, demonstrations, and laboratory exercises. Some of the recitation exercises will require you to provide a response that will be graded. You are expected to download, print, and read the handout prior to recitation. 5. Quizzes (7.5%) There will be a quiz during each recitation to ensure that you have read and understood the material. Quizzes will be based on both assigned reading given in lecture and the information in handout for the recitation. Attendance: Consistent attendance is expected in both the lecture and recitations. Excessive (~8) absences from class are sufficient reason for the Instructor to award a failing grade. Honor Code: All students of the University of Colorado at Boulder are responsible for knowing and adhering to the academic integrity policy of this institution. Violations of this policy may include: cheating, plagiarism, aiding academic dishonesty, fabrication, lying, bribery, and threatening behavior. All incidents of academic misconduct shall be reported to the Honor Code Council (honor@colorado.edu; 303-725-2273). Students who are found to be in violation of the academic integrity policy will be subject to both academic sanctions from the faculty member and non-academic sanctions (including, but not limited to, university probation, suspension, or expulsion). Other information on the Honor Code can be found at http://www.colorado.edu/policies/honor.html and at http://www.colorado.edu/academic/honorcode/. It is a violation of the honor code to obtain copies of assignments, exams, or quizzes for this course from individuals or vendors who distribute such material. Religious Campus policy regarding religious observances requires that faculty make a reasonable Observances: effort to accommodate students who, because of religious obligations, have conflicts with scheduled exams, assignments, or required attendance. Please discuss your needs with the Instructor at least two weeks before the conflict will occur. Additional information can be found at: http://www.colorado.edu/policies/fac_relig.html. Disabilities: Academic Integrity: If you qualify for accommodations because of a disability, submit a letter to the Instructor from Disability Services no later than February 1, 2010 so that your needs may be addressed. Disability Services determines the necessary accommodations based on your documented disabilities. Contact: 303-492-8671, Willard 322, or http://www.colorado.edu/disabilityservices. All students of the University of Colorado at Boulder are responsible for knowing and adhering to the academic integrity policy of this institution. Violations of this policy may include: cheating, plagiarism, aid of academic dishonesty, fabrication, lying, bribery, and threatening behavior. All incidents of academic misconduct shall be reported to the Honor Code Council (honor@colorado.edu; 303-725-2273). Students who are found to be in violation of the academic integrity policy will be subject to both academic sanctions from the faculty member and non-academic sanction (including, but Page 2
not limited to, university probation, suspension, or expulsion). Additional information on the honor code can be found at: http://www.colorado.edu/policies/honor.html and at http://www.colorado.edu/academics/honorcode. Classroom Behavior: Students and faculty each have responsibility for maintaining an appropriate learning environment. Students who fail to adhere to behavioral standards may be subject to discipline. Faculty have the professional responsibility to treat students with understanding, dignity and respect, to guide classroom discussion and to set reasonable limits on the manner in which students express opinions. Professional courtesy and sensitivity are especially important with respect to individuals and topics dealing with differences of race, culture, religion, politics, sexual orientation, gender, gender variance, and nationalities. Class rosters are provided to the instructor with the student s legal name. I will gladly honor your request to address you by an alternate name. Please advise us of this preference early in the semester so that we can make appropriate changes to our records. For more information on campus policies, see: http://www.colorado.edu/policies/classbehavior.html, and http://www.colorado.edu/studentaffairs/judicialaffairs/code.html#student_code. Discrimination The University of Colorado Policy on Discrimination and Harassment, the University of and Colorado policy on Sexual Harassment, and University of Colorado policy on Amorous Harassment: Relationships apply to all students, staff, and faculty. Any student, staff, or faculty member who believes s/he has been the subject of discrimination or harassment based upon race, color, national origin, sex, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, or veteran status should contact the Office of Discrimination and Harassment (ODH) at 303-492-2127 or the Office of Judicial Affairs at 303-492-5550. Information about the ODH and the campus resources available to assist individuals who believe they have been sexually harassed can be obtained at: http://www.colorado.edu/odh. Thinking Skills: According to popular taxonomies on learning, there are at least four types of knowledge: 1. Factual knowledge Details: facts, terms, vocabulary 2. Conceptual knowledge The big picture: principles, theories, models, generalizations, and categories 3. Procedural knowledge How to do these things: skills, research methods, and algorithms 4. Metacognitive knowledge Understanding how people learn This course will require you to obtain the first three types of knowledge as it relates to the learning goals of the course. Each type of knowledge has a range of knowing and understanding associated with it that is ranked from the lowest to highest level as follows: 1. Remembering recognizing or recalling information 2. Understanding classifying items into similar groups, summarizing information, explaining a process, describing examples of a concept 3. Applying solving or explaining a problem by applying what has been learned 4. Analyzing solving a problem by systematically examining facts and looking for patterns or relations 5. Evaluating making a judgment based on some standard or criterion 6. Creating use original thinking to produce something novel Page 3
You must first master the two lower levels of thinking skills before you can use the higher levels. This means that you must have memorized and understood some information before you can apply, analyze, evaluate, or create new information. Learning tips: To do well in this course, we recommend the following: 1. Get to know your TA 2. Never miss class 3. Sit with your recitation group and establish a peer group for in-class discussions, working on assignments, and studying for exams 4. Download and read the lecture notes as soon as they are available 5 Read the relevant textbook material at least one day BEFORE every class and learn the vocabulary. Make a note of concepts that you are not sure you understand. Get a night s sleep between reading the material and attending the class. 6. Ask the instructor and your TA questions in class 7. Understand the diagrams and graphs discussed in class 8. Meet with your study group once a week to review the material 9. Do not wait until Friday to begin the week s assignment 10. Make use of both textbooks on reserve in Norlin; these will be useful, and in some cases essential, for completing assignments 11. Prepare for the weekly quiz in recitation by completing the online quiz, downloading the handout, and using the textbook to learn the vocabulary 12. Be an active participant in recitation 13. Attend office hours (TA and instructor) to discuss terms and concepts that you do not UNDERSTAND 14. Use the questions asked in class and the learning goals as a guide to studying for an exam 15. Manage your time carefully during exams 16. Read the exam questions carefully 17. Check your scores on the grade sheet periodically during the semester to make sure that the correct values have been entered 18. Understand that there are no short cuts to learning and understanding the material Learning Goals: The learning goal for this course is to enable you to integrate knowledge on the structure and function of the nervous system to how it controls human movement. There is one overall learning goal for each of the five topics: 1. To define the processes involved in transmitting electrical signals between neurons and muscle fibers 2. To list the properties of the basic functional unit that connects the nervous system to muscle and to explain how it produces muscle force 3. To diagram the reflex pathways and to describe their modulation during movement 4. To define the properties of neurons and to diagram the neural circuits that can produce automatic behaviors Page 4
5. To deduce the interactions that must occur within the nervous system to perform purposeful actions Course Outline: To realize the learning goals, the course will cover the following five topics at a rate that will be determined by the discussions in the interactive class sessions. The topics are organized so that we proceed from the properties of excitable membranes to the activation of muscle during reaching: 1. Action Potentials and Signaling rapid signal transmission a. Fundamentals of electrical circuits b. Current around a circuit c. Cell membrane circuit d. Equivalent neuron properties e. Resting membrane potential f. Membrane currents g. Passive properties of neurons h. Action potential i. Action potentials in muscle j. Chemical and electrical synapses k. Nerve-muscle synapse l. Post-synaptic potentials m. Ionotropic and metabotropic receptors 2. Motor Unit and Muscle Action the neuromuscular system a. Final common pathway b. Motor unit types c. Motor unit recruitment and rate coding d. Muscle fatigue e. Physical training f. Aging 3. Spinal Reflexes basic neural circuits a. Control strategies b. Tendon organs and muscle spindles c. Ia afferent reflexes d. Modulation of spinal reflexes e. Reflexes and muscle fatigue f. Reflexes and spinal cord injury 4. Automatic behaviors actions that do not involve the motor cortex a. Biomechanics of locomotion b. Neural control of locomotion c. Central pattern generators d. Sensory input e. Cortical control of the spinal locomotor system 5. Voluntary Actions generating the motor commands a. Motor system b. Reaching and pointing c. Muscle strength Page 5
Recitations: The purposes of the recitation are: 1. To review in-class questions, key vocabulary, and important concepts 2. To participate in learning experiences that enhance the lecture material 3. To prepare for and review the exams. 1/11 Introductions Contact information and office hours Orientation to course 1/18 Units of measurement (pp. 3-5 and Appendix A in Enoka) [Optional ADAMS CDs for anatomy review, ion channels, membrane potential, action potentials] 1/25 Computer simulations of membrane potential Building circuits (optional) 2/1 Introduction to Real World Example presentations 2/8 Neuronal basis of movement video and evoked contractions lab 2/15 Prepare for Exam 1 2/22 Review Exam 1 3/1 EMG demonstration 3/8 Motor unit demonstration (Neurophysiology of Movement Laboratory) 3/15 Prepare for Exam 2 3/22 Spring Break 3/29 Review Exam 2 4/5 H-reflex demonstration (Neurophysiology of Movement Laboratory) 4/12 Reflexes, stretching exercises, and locomotion 4/19 Real World Example presentations 4/26 Prepare for Exam 3 Page 6