NBE-E4210 - Structure and operation of the human brain D, Lecture, 13.9.2021-20.12.2021

Topic outline

• Materials
  Reading material

  The main content to read for the course are Chapters 1–11, 13–15, 22, and 23 of the book:

  • Bear, Connors, Paradiso: Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain, 4th edition, Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, 2015. (Edition 3 will do as well).

  Additional reading material includes Risto Ilmoniemi's lecture notes, and chapters 1 to 5 of Iiro Jääskeläinen's free e-book Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience.

  The following book (or a more recent edition) can also be recommended as a more thorough introduction to neuroscience:
  

  • Kandel, E. R., Schwartz, J. H. & Jessell, T. M. (eds.) 2000. Principles of Neural Science, 4th ed. McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, USA.

  
  

  Apps

  There are a couple of apps for computers and mobile devices that can be particularly useful especially when studying the anatomy of the brain. 

  • 3D Brain (iOS, Android, free): An app that lets you view the different brain sections in 3D, and look at them from different angles. Quite useful for learning the different areas of the brain.
  • Brain and Nervous System Pro III (iOS, paid): This iPad App has high quality images and descriptions, as well as videos, of several areas of the nervous system (not just the brain), and it can be a great help for understanding the structure of the nervous system as well as some of its functions.
    
  • BrainPro (MacOS, paid): Another app that is of great use for learning the structure of the brain.
  • 3D Organon VR (Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, paid): Using VR (Virtual Reality) glasses, you can inspect and pick apart the different anatomical parts and structures (including the brain) in the human body! This app supports touch controllers on both HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, so you can do the inspecting in a truly hands-on fashion. Does not have videos or as elaborate explanations as the apps above, but provides a hands-on approach to those with access to VR technology.
    
  • My Brain Anatomy (Android, iOS, free with advertisements): An app that lets you explore the brain anatomy and make personal notes above the 3D model. There is also a paid version without the advertisements.

  Flashcards

  Furthermore, one great way to learn much of the factual knowledge (anatomic parts, functions of structures, nerve tract details, etc..) is to regularly test yourself with flashcards. The following options can get you started:

  • BrainScape (web, Android, iOS, free with option to go Premium): A great cross-platform flashcard app; you can create the flashcards on your computer, sync them, and study them on the bus, or anywhere else!
  • AnkiApp (Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS, free on some of the platforms): Another useful flashcard app with cross-platform support.

  Finally, as a bonus, Vesa Vahermaa has shared his flashcards for the course. He made them in BrainScape, and you can access them for free. They cover most of the relevant topics of the course and chapters of the book. You can find the flashcard decks here: https://www.brainscape.com/p/5EEI-LH-4UPPK
  
  If you want to get everything out of flashcards, it's always more beneficial to the learning process to make the cards yourself. However, using someone else's deck is a good alternative!
  

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