Psych 3L03 Neuroscience Laboratory

(Term 2, 2000-2001)

Instructor:

1. Dr. Hong-jin Sun, Room 415, Psychology Building, Ext. 24367, sunhong@mcmaster.ca

Teaching Assistants:

1. Mr. Michael Eckert, Ext. 22022, EckertMJ@mcmaster.ca
2. Ms. Bin Xu, Ext. 22022, XuB2@mcmaster.ca

Course web page: http://www.psychology.mcmaster.ca/3l03sun/index.htm

This web page was last updated on Thursday, March 22, 2001 (4:31pm)

COURSE OBJECTIVES

In this course students will have the opportunity (1) to learn various neuroscience techniques through hands-on experience in performing experiments using animals and human subjects,, (2) to gain experience in research design, including forming experimental hypotheses, designing experiments, collecting data, analyzing data, interpreting the empirical results, and (3) to practice communicating your findings through written and oral presentations.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

In this course, students will conduct 3 laboratory projects (two formal experimental projects and one neuroanatomy exercise). The 1st lab project is a structured project involving behavioral measurement and neurophysiological recording from animals (rats). The project will be designed by the whole class (through classroom discussion) and all the students and TAs will be involved in data collection. The results from the work of the whole class will be pooled for data analysis.

The 2^nd lab project is a group project. The class will be divided into 4 groups (5 students each) and each group will design and conduct its own experiment. You are expected to do library research to derive your hypothesis. You will do most of your work without direct supervision but the TAs and the instructor will be available to you as resource persons and should be consulted on a regular basis during the development, running and analysis of the experiments. As a group, you should provide written reports on the progress and eventually give an oral presentation to the whole class about your study.

Each student will write lab reports for the two projects.

During the course of these two projects, we will review topics such as research ethics, research design, statistics, use of spreadsheet software, data collection and presentation, etc.

For the 3^rd project, each student will perform a dissection of a sheep brain (2 students will be provided with one brain). You are required to recognize and memorize some important brain structures with the help of a sheep brain atlas. A quiz will be conducted afterward.

LIST of CONTENT

Lectures (Psychology Building Room 204)

1. General research issues
1. Ethics in research using animals
2. Ethics in research using human subjects
3. Research design
4. Basic statistical analysis
5. Writing of lab report
2. Topics related to the lab projects
3. Spreadsheet software: Microsoft Excel (tutorial)

Projects

Demonstrations

1. Single cell recording
2. Histology

SCHEDULE

1. Jan 8
1. Introduction to the course (1.5 hour)
2. Introduction to Project 2 (independent project)
3. After class
1. Project 1: review textbook on neural mechanisms of learning and memory (incl. LTP)
2. Project 1: read Rioult-Pedotti, et al. Nature Neuroscience (1998)
3. Get familiar with MS Excel
4. Project 2: start literature search & reading, form a group (of 4~5 students) and eventually decide on the project within a month
2. Jan 15
1. ethical issue with research using animals (1 hour)
2. animal handling, a hand-on tutorial (1 hour)
3. Project 1: Scheduling for students' participation in project 1
3. Jan 22
1. Discussion of Rioult-Pedotti's paper and background literature (1998) (0.5 hour)
2. Discussion: designing the experiment for project 1 (0.5 hour)
3. Excel tutorial (1 hour, at computer lab, Room 403 of Psychology building)
4. Project 1: conduct experiment (during individually scheduled time throughout the week)
5. After class
1. review statistics textbook on testing of difference between group means
2. Read instructor's guide on writing lab report and write introduction and method sections of the lab report
4. Jan 29
1. Project 1: experiment continued (during individually scheduled time, NO CLASS)
5. Feb 5
1. Lecture: basic statistics (1 hour)
2. Project 1: Discussion of results and data analysis (1 hour)
3. Project 1: Tutorial: graphic display of results and statistical analysis using excel
4. Project 2: 1^st formal group meeting & finalize the project goal (1 hour)
5. After class
1. Project 1: prepare for classroom discussion on the experimental design
2. Project 1: write results and discussion sections of the lab report
3. Project 2: search supplementary literature and finish all readings
6. Feb 12
1. Project 1: discussion of the experimental design and results (1 hour)
2. Lecture on writing lab report (0.5 hour)
3. Project 2 (in group): discussion on background literature (1 hour)
4. Project 2, end of STAGE 1 (in group): literature review due Thursday, Feb 15
7. Feb 19 reading week
8. Feb 26
1. Lecture and discussion: ethics in research using human subjects
2. Project 2 (in group): discussion on the experimental design & pilot experiment
3. Project 1: Lab report due Thursday, Mar 1
9. Mar 5
1. Lecture: basic gross neuroanatomy (0.5 hour)
2. Sheep brain dissection (tutorial in 2 groups, 1+1 hour)
3. Project 2 (in group): data collection
4. Project 2, end of STAGE 2 (in group):, proposal due Thursday, Mar 8
10. Mar 12
1. Sheep brain dissection review (optional)
2. Project 2, end of STAGE 3 (in group): data collection & data analysis
3. Peer reviews of report 1 by fellow students due
11. Mar 19
1. Sheep brain dissection review (optional)
2. Sheep brain practical exam
3. Project 2, end of STAGE 4 (in group): data analysis
12. Mar 26
1. Project 2, end of STAGE 5: Group presentation to the whole class
1. Group 1
2. Group 2
13. Apr 2
1. Project 2: Group presentation to the whole class (continued)
1. Group 3
2. Group 4
2. Lab notebook due
3. Project 2, end of STAGE 6: Lab report (from individual) due Thursday, April 5

EVALUATION (revised)

DETAILED REQUIREMENTS

1. Lab reports
1. Written lab reports (for both Project 1 and 2) are required for everyone.
2. All written reports submitted must be formatted as typed double-spaced one-sided 8.5 x 11 inch with 1 inch margins using a 12-point font.
3. Project 1
1. submit three copies of your lab report (two of them, with cover page removed, will be forwarded to 2 classmates for "peer review").
4. Project 2
1. The same criterion used for grading the report of project 1 will be used for project 2. In addition, the quality of the research (incl., literature search, experimental design, work load) will also be taken into consideration.
2. The papers for each member of the group will only be similar with respect to the methods and results and will vary among group members as people vary in their interpretations of the findings, in their criticisms of the study, in suggestions for future work and in their selection of relevant literature.
3. You are required to append with your report a photocopy of important articles (at least 3) cited in your report.
2. Peer review of lab report
1. In addition to your own lab report, for project 1, you are required to grade and critically evaluate two lab reports of your classmates
3. Project 2
1. You should start the project by doing literature search from PsycInfo and Medline before you design and conduct your experiment. You can also use the papers provided by the instructor.
2. As a group, you are required to report the progress of your group project (~2 pages) at least twice (Feb 15 and March 8) before making the final presentation.
3. Each group is free to organize itself as it thinks best (e.g., dividing responsibility, working in sub-group, or working together). But it might be practical to designate one member of the group as the facilitator/organizer for each stage of the project and he or she will be eventually responsible for the performance of that stage.
4. Everyone in the group should participate in the final oral presentation and group members must participate equally in the presentations.
5. Oral presentation will be graded for group performance as well as for the performance of each individual.
4. Participation to the class is considered from the following aspects:
1. Attend class and group meeting and arrive on time
2. Active learning
1. Contribute to class and group discussion
2. Contribute to experiment
3. Contribute to literature search
4. Show initiative in organizing group activity
3. Provide extensive and informative feedback to the oral presentation of other groups.
4. Provide feedback and suggestion to the design of this course
5. Laboratory notebook
1. It should be a bound, hardcover notebook at least 7" x 9" in size. Recordings in the notebook should be written at the time when the experiment/analysis is carried out (NOT at the end of the term and right before the notebook is due!).
2. It must contain enough information to allow yourself or others to repeat the work exactly as you have done it. Record in your notebook everything that you do and observe as you carry out the experiment as well as each of the steps and the results when you analyse your data. Fasten copies of any graphs or images obtained during the course of the experiment or analysis into the book.
3. The first page of the notebook is reserved for a table of content. All subsequent pages are numbered. The table of content should indicate the title of the experiment and the page number in the book.

Final grades will be assigned according to the following conventional scheme:

The instructor reserves the right to adjust final marks up or down, on an individual basis, in the light of special circumstances and/or the individual's overall performance in the course. Furthermore, the instructor reserves the right to change the weight of any portion of this marking scheme.

READINGS

1. Required Readings
1. original journal articles
1. Project 1: Rioult-Pedotti, M., Friedman, D., Hess, G., & Donoghue, J. P. (1998). Strengthening of horizontal cortical connections following skill learning. Nature Neuroscience, 1, 230 - 234. (on reserve in Health Science Library)
2. book
1. Project 3: Vanderwolf, C. H. and Cooley, R. K. (1990). The sheep brain: A photographic series. London, Ontario, Canada: A.J. Kirby Co. (Need page 15-40). Available in bookstore.
2. Recommended References
1. Guide to writing lab report
1. Martin, D. W. (2000). How to report experimental results. In Doing psychology experiments (5^th ed., pp. 271-310), Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. (on reserve in Health Science Library)
2. American Psychological Association. (1994). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (4^th ed.), Washington, DC: Author.
2. Papers that could be related to the independent projects
3. Papers related to the demonstration for single cell recording
1. Frost, B. J., Cavanagh, P. and Morgan, B. (1988). Deep tectal cells in pigeons respond to kinematograms. Journal of Comparative Physiology A, 162, 639-647. (on reserve in Health Science Library)
2. Frost, B.J., Scilley, P.L. & Wong, S.C.P. (1981). Moving background patterns reveal double-opponency of directionally specific pigeon tectal neurons. Experimental Brain Research, 43, 173-185. (on reserve in Health Science Library)
3. Web Links Relevant to the Course
1. guide to writing research reports by Paul C. Cozby
2. some useful links from a course taught by Dr. Christopher Green of York Univ
3. Sheep brain dissection
1. http://www.albion.edu/student/wwwgroup/cogsci/index.htm
2. http://faculty.purduenc.edu/jcamp/braindex.html
3. http://web.mit.edu/org/b/bcs/www/sheepatlas/sheep.htm
4. http://www.uofs.edu/sheep
5. http://lshome.utsa.edu/Courses/IntroNeurolab/Assign02Anat/HTML/sheepdissproc.htm

Message from the chair of Psychology: The instructor can not be responsible for returning long distance calls from students. Any student wishing to reach instructor is invited to email the instructor.