Neurophysiology
Unit code: HET227
| Credit points | 12.5 Credit Points |
| Duration | 1 Semester |
| Contact hours | 4 Hours per Week |
| Campus | Hawthorn |
| Prerequisites | HET102 Introductory Physiology or HES1610 Concepts of Biology and either HET148 Technology and Data Acquisition or HET182 Electronics Systems. |
| Corequisites | Nil |
Related course(s)
A unit of study in the Bachelor of Arts (Psychology and Psychophysiology), Bachelor of Science (Psychology and Psychophysiology), Bachelor of Science (Medical Biophysics), Bachelor of Science (Medical Technology), Bachelor of Engineering (Biomedical Engineering) and Bachelor of Engineering (Electronics and Computer Systems)/ Bachelor of Science (Biomedical Sciences) programs.
Aims and objectives
To provide students with an understanding of human neuroanatomy, peripheral and central motor systems, tactile sensory systems and the application of techniques and instrumentation for monitoring brain activity.Content
- Neuroanatomy: spinal organisation and structure, pathways.
- Somatosensory system: receptors to touch, pressure, pain, temperature.
- Generator potentials and frequency coding in the CNS.
- Major afferent pathways; subcortical and cortical regions, sensory homunculus, sensory areas SI, Sll, psychophysics, perception.
- Pain pathways and endogenous analgesia, pain suppression.
- Information processing: channel capacity, psychophysics.
- Neuropharmacology: Introduction to receptors, receptor activation, major anti-depressant classes; drug dynamics, clearance, routes of administration, drug treatment in some clinical disorders.
- Neuroendocrinology: Introduction to interactions between nervous system and hormones, effects on metabolism and arousal, hypothalamic pathways, pituitary-hypothalamus interactions and axis, hypothalarnic-pituitary-adrenal axis, control and homeostasis.
Reading materials
Carpenter, RHS, Neurophysiology, 3rd edn, Arnold, London, 1996Fitzgerald, MJT, Neuroanatomy Basic and Clinical, 3rd edn, Saunders, London, 1996.
Guyton, AC & Hall, JE, Textbook of Medical Physiology, 9th edn, Saunders, Philadelphia, 1996.
Kandell, ER, Schwartz, JH & Jessel, TM, Principles of Neural Science, 4th edn, McGraw Hill, New York, 2000.
Martini, F, Fundamentals of Anatomy & Physiology, 5th edn, Prentice Hall International, New Jersey, 2001.
