Neurobiology of Hearing (MEDS 5377)

Course Description

The Neurobiology of Hearing provides an introduction to the auditory system and current research in auditory neuroscience. This field is a microcosm of neuroscience, in general, and the interdisciplinary approach embodied by neuroscience. Students will develop a detailed understanding of the peripheral and central auditory system and the neurobiological basis of sound processing. The course is taught by a faculty drawn from UConn at UConn Health and Storrs, the Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Salamanca, and Johns Hopkins Medical School and the University of Michigan plus guest lecturers from major universities around the world. The diverse areas of expertise of the faculty guarantee that the students will be exposed to different aspects of auditory research and neuroscience including synaptic physiology, neural circuitry, acoustics, auditory physiology, and behavior. The diversity also guarantees that the student will not be bored by a single professor. Students will be assessed on their classroom participation, papers, and critiques of papers. Students will receive grades based on exams and papers in which they propose a hypothesis-driven experiment directly related to previous lectures in the course. Students also will be graded on their critiques of papers by other students. There will be student presentations of research proposals in the final week.

The course also includes a short course in Neuroscience Methods. This requires a trip to Prague in the Czech Republic to the Institute for Experimental Medicine at the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague where there is a large group of scientists that also study the neurobiology of hearing.

Recommended Texts

• The Mammalian Auditory Pathways: Synaptic Organization and Microcircuits. [2018] Douglas L Oliver, Nell B. Cant, Richard R. Fay, and Arthur  N. Popper; Springer Handbook of Auditory Research, vol 65. Springer.ISBN 978-3-319-71796-8 (Hardcover); ISBN 978-3-319-71798-2 (eBook)
• Auditory Neuroscience: Making Sense of Sound [2010] Jan Schnupp, Israel Nelken, Andrew J King; The MIT Press; 1 edition; ISBN-10: 026211318X;  ISBN-13: 978-0262113182; Kindle edition available.