EE580: FUNDAMENTALS OF COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE

SPRING 2018 SYLLABUS

Instructor: Prof. Dr. Burak Güçlü

Office: Institute of Biomedical Engineering (A2-12)
Phone: (216) 5163467
E-mail: burak.guclu@boun.edu.tr
Class hours: Mon. 2-5 pm; Location: KB Maxwell
Office hours: By appointment

Textbook:
Mathematics for Neuroscientists, F. Gabbiani and S. J.
Cox, Academic Press, 2nd ed., 2017 (selected topics).

References:
Principles of Neural Science, E.R. Kandel et al., 5th ed., McGraw-Hill, 2012 (biology background).

Theoretical Neuroscience: Computational and Mathematical Modeling of Neural Systems, P.Dayan

and L.F. Abbott, MIT Press, 2001 (classic text).

MATLAB for Neuroscientists: An Introduction to Scientific Computing in MATLAB, P. Wallisch et

al., Academic Press, 2009 (less math, focus on programming).

Grading: Homework 60%, Classwork 20%, Final 20%

Prerequisite: MATLAB programming skills

Selected topics:

1) Passive isopotential neuron (Nernst potential, electical model of the cell membrane, synaptic
conductance)

2) Active isopotential neuron (delayed rectifier potassium channel, sodium channel, Hodgkin-
Huxley model, transient potassium channel, sodium-potassium pump)

3) Reduced single neuron models (leaky integrate-and-fire neuron, bursting neurons)

4) Neuronal networks (integrate-and-fire networks, grid-cell network, HH-type networks, rate

based networks, brain maps)

5) Random processes and spike trains (raster plots, peri-stimulus and interspike interval histograms,
coefficient of variation, spike count distribution, Fano factor, serial correlation coefficients)

6) Spike train decoding (reverse correlation, stimulus reconstruction)

7) Signal detection theory and psychophysics (hypothesis testing, decision rules, ROC curves,
single photon detection, motion detection, maximum likelihood)

8) Firing rate codes and early vision (visual stimuli, retinal ganglion cells, spatiotemporal receptive
fields)

9) Models of simple and complex cells in the V1 cortex (non-separable receptive fields, motion-
energy model, Hubel-Wiesel model)