“Neurophysiology of behavior (program of the Faculty of Biology)” - course 9640 rubles. from MSU, training 15 weeks. (4 months), Date: December 6, 2023.

Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor

Position: Professor, Department of Human and Animal Physiology, Faculty of Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University

Topic 1. The main functional blocks of the human brain (needs, memory, decision making, movements, etc.). General principles of operation of sensory systems: encoding of quantity and quality, topical relations, algorithms for processing signals in the central nervous system.

Topic 2. Brain and sensory systems: vision. Eye, photoreceptors (rods, cones) and retina. Analysis of visual information in the central nervous system: recognition of patterns of varying degrees of complexity. Binocular vision. Vision prosthetics.

Topic 3. Brain and sensory systems: hearing and balance. Hair receptors of the inner ear. Principles of operation of the vestibular system. Middle ear, cochlea and auditory centers of the brain. Speech and music recognition. Hearing prosthetics.

Topic 4. Brain and sensory systems: taste and smell. Variety of taste buds and their functions. Taste areas of the central nervous system. Variety of olfactory receptors. The sense of smell in the brain. Holistic taste image: the contribution of smell and cutaneous sensitivity.

Topic 5. Brain and sensory systems: pain sensitivity. Pain as a reaction to cell and tissue damage. Transmission of pain to the central nervous system. Pain control systems; narcotic and non-narcotic analgesics. Pain and stress. Pathology of pain.

Topic 6. Brain and needs: curiosity, freedom, joy of movement. The significance of new information for the organization of behavior. Research motivation centers: from the midbrain to the cerebral cortex and the speech model of the external world.

Topic 7. Brain and needs: self-preservation, defense of territory, desire to lead. The role of the amygdala. Competition between passive (“fear”) and active (“aggression”) defense programs. Aggression as a universal reaction to conflict of interests.

Topic 8. The brain and needs: motor imitation and empathy. Discovery of mirror neurons. Imitation of motor programs and behavior algorithms as the basis for the transfer of cultural skills. Emotional imitation, empathy.

Topic 9. The brain and memory: associative and non-associative learning. Classic conditioned reflex. Summation and its synaptic mechanisms. Long-term potentiation; role of the hippocampus. Imprinting as a special type of long-term memory.

Topic 10. Molecular basis of associative learning; methods of their research (EEG, optogenetics). Conditioned inhibition as “negative learning”, temperaments. Conditioned reflexes to complex stimuli; speech systems of the brain.

Topic 11. Brain and movement: reflexes and locomotion. Mono- and polysynaptic reflexes of the spinal cord, their functional meaning. Stepping and running as the main variants of human locomotion. Brain and locomotion control (tonic and phasic).

Topic 12. Brain and movements: voluntary and automated motor acts, pyramidal system. The role of the premotor and motor cortex. Contribution of the cerebellum, basal ganglia, subthalamus, thalamus. Motor memory as “inhibition of inhibition.”