If your school is like most, the winter holiday break ends with the first day
of Neuro. In this article we'll review the basic components of any neuro
course and talk about the resources you'll need.
A Neuro course is usually broken down into 4 major parts: 1)
Neuroanatomy, 2) Neurophysiology, 3) Systems and 4) Lesions. Since
neuroscience is arguably the fastest changing field in biology, it's
sometimes tough for a neuroscience faculty to decide what gets into an
MS-I course. The following is a list of the basic topics and the tools
that will be most helpful.
First, the classic neuroscience text is Principles of Neural Science
edited by Kandel, Schwartz and Jessel (4th edition).
Since this text is almost universally used, neuro questions on board exams seem
to come from highlighted topics in this book. Even just reviewing the
figures will help with boards. If you don't have it, get it. You WILL need
it.
Neuroanatomy. The neuroanatomy part of the course usually
consists of identifying brain or spinal cord structures on slides
and digital images. It's mostly rote memorization, but understanding
how things connect and function makes it a lot easier. The bulk
of the difficulty here comes from the large number of structures
you'll be asked to identify. I've found it helpful to break anatomic
regions into manageable chunks, selecting a landmark or two in each
area for orientation (so you know where you are before you try to
guess what you're looking at), and try to remember how everything
goes together around that landmark. In coronal sections of the anterior
or middle cerebrum, for example, the caudate nucleus is always just
below the lateral ventricle. Every time I see that big hole in the
brain that is the lateral ventricle I can find at least one structure!
A brain atlas will be a great help. One photographic atlas that has
promise is
Structure of the Human Brain : A Photographic Atlas. The
Mai, Assheuer, and Paxinos Atlas of the Human Brain is top of the
line, but a bit pricier. There are also a lot of on-line resources for neuroanatomy (see the MSRG neuroscience study guide); while many of these are
excellent, they can also be a bit slow because most are image based.
Neurophysiology. This usually consists of getting acquainted
with the biophysics of ion flow across membranes, action potentials
and neurotransmitter signaling. While "biophysics" can be pretty
math intensive, the neuro course usually doesn't require too much
math skill. Kandel's book is great for Neurophysiology. The Howard
Hughes Medical Institute has a fun (and useful) leech neurophysiology
simulation - you can find it through the MSRG
neuroscience study guide. While leech neurophysiology may not
seem the most high-tech neuroscience, it did win Kandel the 2000
Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology.
Continued on Neurobiology
2 ...
