Core Course

 

The core course (182 teaching hours) is equivalent to 36 ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) units.
 
MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR NEUROSCIENCE
Short introduction to the central nervous sytem (Y. Dalezios)
Resting membrane potential (Y. Dalezios)
Action potential (Y. Dalezios)
Post-synaptic potentials (Y. Dalezios)
Synaptic integration (Y. Dalezios)
Mechanisms of biosynthesis, storage, and release of neurotransmitters (G. Liapakis)
Structure and function of neurotransmitter receptors (G. Liapakis)
Learning and memory: cellular mechanisms (Y Dalezios)
Molecular basis of neuronal excitability (K. Sidiropoulou)
Gene regulation of learning and memory (K. Sidiropoulou)
 

SYSTEMS NEUROSCIENCE I - PERCEPTION

Refractive media of the eye (M Tsilimbaris)
Psychophysics of vision (S. Plainis)
Retina - Phototransduction (A.K. Moschovakis)
Retina - Image processing (A.K. Moschovakis)
The primary visual cortex (A.K. Moschovakis)
Perception of color and depth (A.K. Moschovakis)
Mid- and higher order vision (G. Gregoriou)
Visual attention (G. Gregoriou)
The somatosensory system (A.K. Moschovakis)
Audition and vestibular sense (A.K. Moscovakis)
 
SYSTEMS NEUROSCIENCE II - MOVEMENT AND COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS
Muscle receptors, spinal circuits and reflexes (V. Raos)
Psychophysics of voluntary movements (V. Raos)
Primary motor cortex (V. Raos)
Premotor and parietal cortex (V. Raos)
Basal Ganglia (G. Gregoriou)
Cerebellum (G. Gregoriou)
The oculomotor system (A.K. Moschovakis)
Emotions and memory  (P. Simos)
Language and executive functions (P. Simos)
Association cortices and lateralization of function in the brain (H. Savaki)
 
INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY
Basic functions and mechanisms of memory - amnesia (P. Simos)
Executive functions/Developmental neuropsychology (P. Simos)
Experimental approaches in neuropsychology (P. Simos)
Social perception of emotion (K. Kafetsios)
Sensory psychology (E. Economou)
Perception and consciousness (E. Economou)
Developmental psychology (T. Kokkinaki)
 
INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND

Introduction. Naturalism in the philosophy of science/philosophy of mind (S. Tsinorema)

Causality in scientific explanation-Mental causation (S. Tsinorema)

Introduction to the philosophy of language (S. Tsinorema)

Introduction to philosophy of mind - Substance dualism (K. Frankish)

Behaviourism - Identity theory (K. Frankish)

Functionalism - The representational theory of Mind (K. Frankish)

Eliminativism - The problem of Consciousness (K. Frankish)

Property dualism - Physicalist theories of consciousness (K. Frankish)

Introduction to the philosophy of science (K. Frankish)

Introduction to the phenomenological philosophy of mind (F. Vassiliou)

Philosophy of perception. Introduction: Direct vs indirect realism. The argument from hallucination (M. Venieri)

Direct realism: Disjunctivism, enactive perception, representationalism (M. Venieri)

Indirect realism: Sense data theory, adverbialism. Virtual reality: Philosophical aspects (M. Venieri)

  
COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCES

Introduction to computational neuroscience and Matlab Primer 1: Vectors and Matrices, Variance and Covariance, Plotting, Randomness, M-files and functions (E. Hourdakis)

Matlab primer 2: Basic mathematical methods: Ordinary differential equations, PCA, convolution, correlation, built-in libraries and toolboxes (E. Hourdakis)

The single neuron model - computational capacity and relative problems, transfer function (E. Hourdakis)

Attractor networks and neural oscillators (E. Hourdakis)

Supervised learning, gradient descent, local extrema (E. Hourdakis)

Other learning methods. Association learning, Hebb's rule, reinforcement learning (E. Hourdakis)

Problem formulation, data collection and analysis, phase-plane analysis and mutual information, signal-to-noise ratio (E. Hourdakis)

Abstract neuron models FitzHugh–Nagumo model, IF, Izhikevich (I. Chitzanidi)

Neural coding. Local/rate coding, population codes, tuning curves, poisson neurons (E. Hourdakis)

Biophysical neuron models .Cable theory, HH equations, compartmental models (P. Poirazi and associates)

The Neuron simulator (P. Poirazi and associates)

Synaptic plasticity, adaptation and learning (P. Poirazi and associates)