The human brain is made of about ten billion neurons and more than one trillion neuron-to-neuron connections. Scientists can study the behavior of individual neurons and their connections like any other physical system. Yet they are only grazing the surface on how this remarkable network of interacting neurons can serve as the physical embodiment of our personalities, perceptions, memories, decisions, and habits. We invite you to come explore mysteries of the brain and the mind with us. In this course we will introduce you to what scientists know, and what scientists don't yet know, about the way the brain works. We will discuss current techniques in neuroscience research, and explore the field by dissecting sheep brains (optional activity).

How does the brain work? The field of neuroscience has really just begun to unravel the mystery of how our mental worlds arise from these three-pound organs; but many surprises have already been uncovered. We all take our ability to sense and manipulate the world for granted, but these abilities have been growing and evolving through intermediate states for millions of years. In our Introduction to Neuroscience class, we will learn experimental and theoretical insights into how people and animals ercieve the world, how we learn, how we think, and how we control our movement. We will discuss the evolutionary roots of the brain, and we will try to tackle some philosophical issues pertaining to consciousness and free will. You will also learn about what happens when brain circuitry goes bad: in Parkonson's disease, Alzheimer's dimentia, and dyslexia, for example; and how our own brains 'go bad' in surprisingly common ways. At the end of the course, we will learn about how research in neuroscience is done by touring several MIT neuroscience laboratories, and we will conduct an (optional) sheep brain dissection to see first-hand how brains are organized.