Neuroscience Boot Camp

The Neuroscience Boot Camp aims to engage students in college-level introductory neuroscience topics, such as neurons and neurotransmission; brain anatomy; learning, memory, and plasticity; sensory systems; motor systems; and neurological diseases. The format includes lecture and discussion, hands-on science, and some homework. Courses will be taught by Georgia State University faculty members, post-doctoral research associates, and graduate or undergraduate student teaching assistants. This is a great opportunity to learn neuroscience from experts in the field and to network with like-minded peers.

Summer 2024 – You can choose between in-person (June 10-14) or online (June 3-7 or July 8-12)

Participants receive a textbook, neuroscience-related mementos, and a course certificate.

Advanced Topics in Neuroscience: Neurological Disorders

This advanced topics course examines neurological disorders, which are diseases of the brain, spinal cord, and/or peripheral nerves. Given that the nervous system controls other bodily organs, the effects of neurological disorders are often severe and sometimes devastating. We will explore mental and mood disorders (e.g. addiction, depression), movement disorders (e.g. dystonia, tremor, chorea), sensory system dysfunction (e.g. deafness, sensory processing disorder, chronic pain, phantom limb syndrome), neurodegenerative conditions (Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Lou Gehrig’s diseases), developmental disruptions (neural tube defects, microcephaly, autism spectrum disorder, fetal alcohol syndrome), and more. In each case, symptoms, prevalence, etiology, treatment, and research models will be introduced using case studies, and research reports. This is a great opportunity to refine your interests in neuroscience and meet some local experts in clinical neuroscience.

Summer 2024 -In-person June 17-21

Participants receive a textbook, neuroscience-related mementos, and a course certificate.

While helpful to have already taken the Neuroscience Boot Camp, it is not required.

Neuroscience Lab Experience: Modeling Alzheimer’s in Drosophila

This advanced topics course takes students into a working laboratory all week long. You will learn how complex human diseases are studied in simpler animals and will design and perform original experiments using several different molecular models of Alzheimer’s disease in Drosophila melanogaster. This course is a rare opportunity for students to work in an actual research setting and practice cutting-edge research techniques using state-of-the-art equipment.

Summer 2024 – In-person July 22-26

Participants receive a lab workbook, neuroscience-related mementos, and a course certificate.

While helpful to have already taken the Neuroscience Boot Camp, it is not required.

Advanced Topics: Human Brain Imaging, Methods and Applications -Four-Day Course

Have you seen the human brain at work?  With brain imaging techniques like MRI, we can peer inside the brain and watch it function. This Neuroscience School short course on human brain imaging reviews human brain anatomy; introduces brain imaging hardware, software, and data; and offers a tour of a brain imaging center (for students in the Atlanta region). Then the course explores ways that scientists use imaging to record brain activation during reading and to study what might be different in reading disorders. The course closes with a day devoted to understanding how artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to analyze brain imaging data.

This class sponsored by TReNDS will run Monday through Thursday and is offered as an online course with an in-person visit to the Center for Advanced Brain Imaging (CABI) (July 15-18).