- Weekly links:
- Week 1: Jan 20, 22
- Week 2: Jan 27, 29
- Week 3: Feb 03, 05
- Week 4: Feb 10, 12
- Week 5: Feb 17, 19
- Week 6: Feb 24, 26
- Week 7: Mar 03, 05
- Week 8: Mar 10, 12
- Week 9: Mar 17, 19
- Break: (Mar 24, 26)
- Week 10: Mar 31, 02
- Week 11: Apr 07, 09
- Week 12: Apr 14, 16
- Week 13: Apr 21, 23
- Week 14: Apr 28, 30
- Week 15: May 05
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Lectures
Lecture schedule and content
The material presented in each class session will be
summarized here, with links to the associated reading
material, web resources, and powerpoint files.
You may need to enter the course userid and password to
access the lecture slides and reading material.
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Week1: introduction; evolution of intelligence
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Tue, Jan 20
Topics:
introduction to the course; overview of course website;
evolution of intelligence; Squeak
Powerpoint: Lecture 1
Readings: Hawking, Crist
Homework 1 due Tue Jan 22 (midnight).
| Thu, Jan 22
COMPUTER LAB - MEET IN 406B1 ENGINEERING HALL
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Week 2: behavior without a nervous system, bacterial chemotaxis
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Tue, Jan 27
Topics:
single-cell intelligence;
HW02 overview;
Powerpoint: Lecture 3
Readings: Dusenbery, Jurica, Zupanc
Squeak: CellGrowth.pr
Homework 2 due Tue Jan 29 (midnight).
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Thu, Jan 29
Topics:
kinesis and taxis;
bacterial chemotaxis;
HW02 help session.
Powerpoint: Lecture 4
Squeak: Orthokinesis.pr,
Klinokinesis.pr
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| Week 3:
sensory information processing
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Tue, Feb 3
Topics:
obstacle avoidance in paramecia; electrical signaling;
emergence of multicellular organisms; Braitenberg vehicles;
Powerpoint: Lecture 5
Movies: Paramecium 1,
Paramecium 2
| Thu, Feb 5
Topics:
Dusenbery article: What is information?;
Cariani article: Information relationships (syntactic, semantic, pragmatic);
possible evolutionary relationships among different sensory modalities (solvent vs. solute sensing);
Powerpoint: Lecture 6
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| Week 4:
simple nervous systems; C. elegans chemotaxis
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Tue, Feb 10
Topics:
emergence of animals (~600 MYA), emergence of nervous systems (~550 MYA);
Chemotaxis in C. elegans; neural model of chemotaxis behavior;
HW04 overview;
Powerpoint: Lecture 7
| Thu, Feb 12
Topics:
Cambrian explosion, evolution of brain complexity, early vertebrates;
Homework #4 help session.
Powerpoint: Lecture 8
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| Week 5:
modulation of behavior; motor patterns; exam I
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Tue, Feb 17
Topics:
area-restricted search in C. elegans, neuromodulation,
organizing behavior on multiple time scales.
Powerpoint: Lecture 9
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Thu, Feb 19
EXAM I: First in-class exam. Covers material from Jan 20 through Feb 12
(Lectures 1-8, Homework 1-4, Readings weeks 1-4).
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| Week 6:
action selection, vertebrate neuroethology
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Tue, Feb 24
Topics:
organizing motor output,
motor hierarchies, pattern generation, mutual inhibition,
sensory-motor integration,
Beer's artificial insect
Powerpoint: Lecture 10
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Thu, Feb 26
Topics:
action selection; condition-action pairs;
behavioral hierarchies; neural substrates;
robot control, Brooks' subsumption architectures
Powerpoint: Lecture 11
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| Week 7:
vertebrate neuroethology; learning & memory
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Tue, Mar 3
Topics:
vertebrate neuroethology, toad visual information processing,
predator/prey behaviors
Powerpoint: Lecture 12
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Thu, Mar 5
Topics: learning, memory, honeybee foraging, proboscis extension reflex
Powerpoint: Lecture 13
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Week 8: honeybee foraging; associative learning
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Tue, Mar 10
Topics: neural basis of PER, VUMmx1 neuron, associative learning models,
delta rule, Montague et al. model of bee foraging (predictive Hebbian learning)
Powerpoint: Lecture 14
Squeak: BeeChoice.pr
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Thu, Mar 12
Computer Lab (individual projects)
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Week 9: timing and counting; circadian rhythms
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Tue, Mar 17
Topics: circadian rhythms
Powerpoint: Lecture 15
Squeak: Circadian.pr
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Thu, Mar 19
EXAM II: Second in-class exam. Covers material from Feb 17 through Mar 10
(Lec 9-14, HW 5-6, readings for weeks 5-8).
Enjoy your SPRING BREAK!!!
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Week 10: active sensing; memory systems
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Tue, Mar 31
Topics:
active sensing, fish electrolocation, bat and dolphin
echolocation, rat whisking, blind mole rats, flashlight fish
Powerpoint: Lecture 16
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Thu, Apr 2
Topics: memory systems
Powerpoint: Lecture 17
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| Week 11:
communication
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Tue, Apr 7
Topics: animal communication, language, general issues, specific examples
(vervet monkeys, bee dance, ant pheronomes, ...)
Powerpoint: Lecture 18
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Thu, Apr 9
Topics: ant pheromone trails
Powerpoint: Lecture 19
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Week 12: emotions; spatial navigation
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Tue, Apr 14
Topics: emotions in animals and animats
Powerpoint: Lecture 20
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Thu, Apr 16
Topics: spatial navigation; desert ants, path integration,
compass sense, landmark-based navigation, mammalian place cells,
human spatial navigation
Powerpoint: Lecture 21
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Week 13: applications; exam III
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Tue, Apr 21
Topics: selection of Showcase projects (proj2), team assignments for proj2,
applications of "brain, behavior and info processing" principles
Powerpoint: Lecture 22
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Thu, Apr 23
EXAM III: Third in-class exam. Covers material from Mar 17 through Apr 16
(Lec 15-21, HW 6-9, readings for weeks 9-12);
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Week 14: Showcase development
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Tue, Apr 28
Teams work on showcase projects in lab
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Thu, Apr 30
Teams work on showcase projects in lab
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Week 15: Showcase presentation
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Tue, May 5
Showcase presentations in class
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Make-up exam
Date/time TBD
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