Description
Neuroanatomy
- General introduction to the central nervous system.
- Anatomy of the spinal cord, rhombencephalon, and cerebellum.
- Anatomy of the mesencephalon and diencephalon.
- Anatomy of the telencephalon.
Cellular components of the nervous system.
Types of cells in the nervous system. Morphological and functional types of neurons. Structure of dendrites and axons.
- Intercellular contact. Types of synapse. Structure of the neuromuscular junction.
- The glia: Oligodendrocytes and Schwann cells, function of astrocytes and microglia, neuron-glia interactions.
- Structure of peripheral nerves. Axonal myelination.
Axonal transport.
Practicum:
Human brain dissection. Students visit the Faculty of Medicine Dissection Room and review the material explained during class lectures and perform sagittal, coronal, and horizontal cuts on human tissue sections. A human brain is dissected to analyze the relationships between its different anatomical structures.
Practicum:
Mouse brain microscopic anatomy. With a microscope, students review and identify the correlations between the basic subdivisions of a mouse brain with the human brain.
General competencies
- Recognize and understand the normal structure of the nervous system at the molecular, cellular, tissue, and system levels.
- Understand the basics and efficacy of therapeutic interventions based on scientific evidence.
- Using macroscopic, microscopic, molecular, and electrophysiological methods recognize the nervous system's structure and function.
Specific competencies
- Identify the morphology and structure of different parts of the nervous system, searching for the correlation in basic subdivisions between human and murine brains, generally used as experimental models.
- Characterize the cellular components of the vertebrate nervous system, understanding their functional properties and contribution to the operation of circuits.
- Describe the cellular and molecular bases of neuronal communication and signaling.
- Understand the regulatory mechanisms of neurogenesis, axonal guidance, neuronal migration and differentiation.
- Understand the mechanisms involved in cerebral cortex regionalization and development.
- Evaluate how anatomical and functional connectivity of the nervous system is analyzed and how it is reorganized under normal and pathological conditions.
- Understand the basics about microscopic and macroscopic imaging techniques in neuroscience.
Contents
Teaching units
Complementary bibliography
Software
Methodology and grading
Grading
- Continuous assessment in classes, seminars and practicals. Evaluation of review papers. Exam of the theoretical contents of the subject.