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SPRING 08 ARCHIVE Lectures

Lecture schedule and content

The material presented in each class session will be summarized here, with links to the associated reading material, web resources, and powerpoint files. You may need to enter the course userid and password to access the lecture slides and reading material.

Week1: introduction; evolution of intelligence

Tue, Jan 15

Topics: introduction to the course; overview of course website; evolution of intelligence; Squeak
Powerpoint: Lecture 1
Readings: Hawking, Crist
Homework 1 due Tue Jan 22 (midnight).

Thu, Jan 17

COMPUTER LAB - MEET IN 406B1 ENGINEERING HALL

Week 2: behavior without a nervous system, bacterial chemotaxis

Tue, Jan 22

Topics: single-cell intelligence; HW02 overview;
Powerpoint: Lecture 3
Readings: Dusenbery, Jurica, Zupanc
Squeak: CellGrowth.pr
Homework 2 due Tue Jan 29 (midnight).

Thu, Jan 24

Topics: kinesis and taxis; bacterial chemotaxis; HW02 help session.
Powerpoint: Lecture 4
Squeak: Orthokinesis.pr, Klinokinesis.pr

Week 3: sensory information processing

Tue, Jan 29

Topics: obstacle avoidance in paramecia; electrical signaling; emergence of multicellular organisms; Braitenberg vehicles;
Powerpoint: Lecture 5
Movies: Paramecium 1, Paramecium 2

Thu, Jan 31

Topics: Dusenbery article: What is information?; Cariani article: Information relationships (syntactic, semantic, pragmatic); possible evolutionary relationships among different sensory modalities (solvent vs. solute sensing);
Powerpoint: Lecture 6

Week 4: simple nervous systems; C. elegans chemotaxis

Tue, Feb 5

Topics: emergence of animals (~600 MYA), emergence of nervous systems (~550 MYA); Chemotaxis in C. elegans; neural model of chemotaxis behavior; HW04 overview;
Powerpoint: Lecture 7

Thu, Feb 7

Topics: Cambrian explosion, evolution of brain complexity, early vertebrates; Homework #4 help session.
Powerpoint: Lecture 8

Week 5: modulation of behavior; motor patterns; exam I

Tue, Feb 12

Topics: area-restricted search in C. elegans, neuromodulation, organizing behavior on multiple time scales.
Powerpoint: Lecture 9

Thu, Feb 14

EXAM I: First in-class exam. Covers material from Jan 15 through Feb 7 (Lectures 1-8, Homework 1-4, Readings weeks 1-4).

Week 6: action selection, vertebrate neuroethology

Tue, Feb 19

Topics: organizing motor output, motor hierarchies, pattern generation, mutual inhibition, sensory-motor integration, Beer's artificial insect
Powerpoint: Lecture 10

Thu, Feb 21

Topics: action selection; condition-action pairs; behavioral hierarchies; neural substrates; robot control, Brooks' subsumption architectures
Powerpoint: Lecture 11

Week 7: vertebrate neuroethology; learning & memory

Tue, Feb 26

Topics: vertebrate neuroethology, toad visual information processing, predator/prey behaviors
Powerpoint: Lecture 12

Thu, Feb 28

Topics: learning, memory, honeybee foraging, proboscis extension reflex
Powerpoint: Lecture 13

Week 8: honeybee foraging; associative learning

Tue, Mar 4

Topics: neural basis of PER, VUMmx1 neuron, associative learning models, delta rule, Montague et al. model of bee foraging (predictive Hebbian learning)
Powerpoint: Lecture 14
Squeak: BeeChoice.pr

Thu, Mar 6

Computer Lab (individual projects)
Week 9: timing and counting; circadian rhythms

Tue, Mar 11

Topics: circadian rhythms
Powerpoint: Lecture 15
Squeak: Circadian.pr

Thu, Mar 13

EXAM II: Second in-class exam. Covers material from Feb 12 through Mar 4 (Lec 9-14, HW 5-6, readings for weeks 5-8).

Enjoy your SPRING BREAK!!!

Week 10: active sensing; memory systems

Tue, Mar 25

Topics: active sensing, fish electrolocation, bat and dolphin echolocation, rat whisking, blind mole rats, flashlight fish
Powerpoint: Lecture 16

Thu, Mar 27

Topics: memory systems
Powerpoint: Lecture 17

Week 11: communication

Tue, Apr 1

Topics: animal communication, language, general issues, specific examples (vervet monkeys, bee dance, ant pheronomes, ...)
Powerpoint: Lecture 18

Thu, Apr 3

Topics: ant pheromone trails
Powerpoint: Lecture 19

Week 12: emotions; spatial navigation

Tue, Apr 08

Topics: emotions in animals and animats
Powerpoint: Lecture 20

Thu, Apr 10

Topics: spatial navigation; desert ants, path integration, compass sense, landmark-based navigation, mammalian place cells, human spatial navigation
Powerpoint: Lecture 21

Week 13: applications; exam III

Tue, Apr 15

Topics: selection of Showcase projects (proj2), team assignments for proj2, applications of "brain, behavior and info processing" principles
Powerpoint: Lecture 22

Thu, Apr 17

EXAM III: Third in-class exam. Covers material from Mar 11 through Apr 10 (Lec 15-21, HW 6-9, readings for weeks 9-12);

Week 14: Showcase development

Tue, Apr 22

Teams work on showcase projects in lab

Thu, Apr 24

Teams work on showcase projects in lab

Week 15: Showcase presentation

Tue, Apr 29

Showcase presentations in class

Make-up exam next Mon


May 5 at 8:00 AM!