The following is a selection of coursework - check the course catalog for current offerings and locations.
Human Motor Control
APPH 86820 - APPH 6231
Instructor: Dr. Alex Klishko (aklishko3@mail.gatech.edu)
Credits: 3
Class Schedule: Mondays, Wednesdays 3:00 – 4:15 pm
Course Description: The human body is a complex mechanical system with over 200 kinematic degrees of freedom (DoF) and 600 muscles each producing moments of force around multiple DoFs and consisting of hundreds of motor units. The force generation ability of each muscle is a nonlinear function of muscle activation and architecture as well as muscle fiber length and velocity. This mechanical system is controlled by networks of millions of neural cells that receive and integrate information about the current state of the body and environment and generate command signals to motoneurons to execute the desired motion. The goal of this course is to systematically examine the motor control processes in their relationship to human body mechanical properties, muscle mechanics and human kinematics and kinetics.
Quantitative Neuroscience
85585 - BMED 7610
Instructor: Garrett Stanley (garrett.stanley@bme.gatech.edu)
Credits: 3
Class Schedule: Tuesdays and Thursdays 1:30 – 2:45pm
Course Description: Information about the outside world is represented by electrical activity within the nervous system, where the language of communication is often referred to as the neural code. This course provides an overview of the underlying biological processes that give rise to neural activity, the code by which information is represented and transformed in sensory and motor systems, the relationship between anatomical structure and function, the efficiency of coding, and how this relates to decision making and action. Topics span from detailed biophysics, to neural data and statistics, to machine learning and population dynamics.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
90820 - BMED 6210
Instructors: Shella Keilholz and John Oshinski (shella.keilholz@bme.gatech.eduand johno@gatech.edu)
Credits:3
Class Schedule: Monday and Wednesday 3:30 – 4:15 pm
Course Description: This course will discuss the acquisition and analysis of magnetic resonance images. We will begin with basic contrast methods (T1, T2) and then discuss more advanced methodology requiring more sophisticated reconstruction algorithms (diffusion tensor imaging, functional MRI, cardiac tagging). Guest lectures will be given by experts for some of the more advanced imaging sequences.
At Emory: Measuring and Modeling Animal Behavior
BIOL 485/PHYS 741R
Instructor: Gordon Berman (gordon.berman@emory.edu)
Credits:
Class Schedule: Monday and Wednesday 2:30-3:45 pm
Course Description: This seminar will provide a survey of modern methods for quantitatively measuring and modeling animal behavior, focusing primarily on the scientific literature. Readings will be composed of a combination of experimental, theoretical, and computational studies, with the overall goals of outlining the current state of our knowledge and highlighting areas of recent investigation. Covered topics will include: measuring behavior from images and time series, analyzing patterns and sequences of behavior, biomechanics and control, collective and social behavior, and aspects of genetic and neurobiological mechanisms. All students will be responsible for reading and presenting articles and for completing a final project. Graduate students will also be required to complete approximately bi-weekly assignments.
Computational Neuromechanics of Human Sensory and Motor Control
BMED 8813: Special Topics
Director: Lena Ting (lting@emory.edu)
Teaching Assistant: Kyle Blum (kyleblum@gatech.edu)
Credits: 3 hours
Hours: Wednesday 2:25 - 5:10 pm
Course Description: This is a graduate level course using engineering and robotics methods to understand the interactions between neural control and biomechanics of human movement. We will read principles of neuromechanics from a recent textbook, implement and analyze neuromechanical models in simulations, and read relevant papers from the primary literature. The implications of neuromechanical interaction in the mechanisms and rehabilitation of neurological disorders will be discussed based on literature and a class project.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing or permit from the instructor. Able to perform data analysis and simulations in Matlab. Familiarity with basic concepts in linear algebra and mechanics are assumed.
Required Texts: Human Robotics: Neuromechanics and Motor Control. Etienne Burdet, David W. Franklin, and Theodore E. Milner.
Topics Include: Proprioception, multijoint mechanics, impedance control, redundancy and dimensional reduction, motor learning, applications in neurorehabilitation and rehabilitation robotics.
Resources: http://neuromechanicslab.emory.edu/resources/computational-neuromechanics.h
Interfacing Engineering Technology and Rehabilitation
BMED 8813: Special Topics (GT)
DPT 988, IBS 760R, Section 0P (Emory)
Instructors: Dr. Steven Wolf (steven.wolf@ap.gatech.edu)
Credits: 3 hours
Hours:Thursday 2:00 – 5:00 pm
Course Description: This course is designed to introduce the student to the emerging trends in rehabilitation technologies. Lecture, laboratory instruction, interdisciplinary grant-writing project will help students develop skills in proposing new research directions, as well as, adopting objective criteria for evaluating emerging technologies with alternative methods. The course will feature recent discoveries in research related to rehabilitation technology. Students and faculty will participate in active discussion regarding research directions currently taking place to further develop applied rehabilitation technologies, discuss methods, and propose solutions to modify and measure responses in clinical situations using these technologies. Students will learn about the physiological mechanisms governing physical rehabilitation, as well as the tools used to quantify those mechanisms. The course will survey neural prosthetics, brain-machine interfacing, wearable technologies, telerehabilitation, regenerative medicine, robotics, and informatics as well as the processes for technology transfer, patent applications, and licensing. Discussion points will be derived from real case studies using patients with physical disabilities as technology consumers and consultants. Discussions will center on the following questions:
1. Does rehabilitation with technology add to functional gains?
2. Can modified body signals be used to enhance functional recovery?
3. Can advanced technologies improve the impact of rehabilitation facilities?
Recommended (Optional) Texts/ Resources:Gaggioli A, Keshner E, and Weiss P. Advanced Technologies in Rehabilitation: Empowering Cognitive, Physical, Social, and Communicative Skills through Virtual Reality, Robots, Wearable Systems and Brain-Computer Interfaces. Washington DC: IOS Press; 2009.
Information Processing Models of Neural Systems
ECE 6790 and BMED 6790
Instructor: Christopher J. Rozell (crozell@gatech.edu)
Credits: 3 hours
Hours: Monday/Wednesday 9:05 - 10:25 am
Course Description: Neural systems are adept at leveraging the statistics of the complex natural world to understand and navigate their environment with great efficiency and effectiveness. These neural systems are very complex, and have been studied at many different levels of abstraction ranging from molecular interactions to human psychophysics. Modeling approaches that seek to describe the input/output relationship of a neural system in terms of computational primitives from a lower level of abstraction (i.e., a ``bottom up'' modeling approach) are commonly used, but do not always illuminate the underlying computational goal of that system. This course will instead examine ``top down'' modeling approaches, where an optimal computational principle used in engineering (e.g., information theory, Bayesian inference, resource allocation, control theory) can account for the observed information processing strategies in a neural system. The potential contributions of these top-down models will be explored in levels of abstraction ranging from the anatomy of single neurons to human sensory perception and motor control.
This is a graduate course based largely around readings from the recent research literatures. The necessary neurophysiology and mathematics background material will be largely self-contained, making this course appropriate for students with a background in either the biosciences or engineering who are interested in learning how the tools of modern information processing can help us understand the function of neural systems.
Movement Disorders
APPH 6239
Instructor: Dr. Lewis A. Wheaton (LAW@gatech.edu)
Credits: 3 hours
Hours: Tuesday/Thursday 1:35 - 2:55 pm
Course Description:This course serves as a Graduate-level introduction to the clinical and research aspects of movement disorders. Focus is placed on deficits that occur through aging, neural injury, genetic, and psychological factors. The outcome goal is to gain knowledge of movement disorders and appreciate the state of research and needs of patients.
Recommended (Optional) Texts/ Resources No Text Required. Readings will be assigned from selected publications. You are highly encouraged to seek out other texts. A list of relevant papers is listed in the syllabus. Good resources for (mostly free) info are: WE MOVE (www.wemove.org) and The Movement Disorders Society (www.movementdisorders.org).
Cognitive Neuroscience
PSYC 4090
Instructor:Dobromir Rahnev (rahnev@psych.gatech.edu)
Credits: 3 hours
Hours: Tuesday/Thursday 4:35 - 5:55 pm
Course Description: This is an undergraduate level course. The course will survey how the brain is organized to support a broad array of processes including cognition, memory, attention, perception, language, action, and emotion. The focus is on the human brain and the methodologies used in cognitive neuroscience such as lesion patients, fMRI, EEG, MEG, TMS, and tDCS. However, relevant studies from the animal literature will also be covered.
Prerequisites: PSYC 3011. If you haven't taken that course, please contact the instructor to ask for special permission and list previous relevant coursework.
Required Texts: Cognitive Neuroscience: The Biology of the Mind, (4th Ed) by Michael S. Gazzaniga, Richard B. Ivry, and George R. Mangun.
Topics Include: Cognition, memory, attention, perception, language, action, emotion, and methods for studying the human brain.
Locomotion Neuromechanics
APPH 6232
Instructor: Dr. Young-Hui Chang (yh.chang@ap.gatech.edu)
Credits: 3 hours
Hours: Wednesday 1:05 - 3:55 pm
Course Description: "Locomotion Neuromechanics" (AP6232) is a twist on the traditional graduate seminar course that is tailored to the individual interests of each year's group of students, but will have a central theme of biomechanics and neural control of locomotor movement. Students will interact on-line (email and Skype) with international experts in their chosen topics each week, helping to foster professional networks and networking skills. Past guests have included experts like: Reggie Edgerton (UCLA), Auke Ijspeert (EPFL), George Lauder (Harvard), John Hutchinson (Royal Veterinary College of London) and Peter Huijing (Vrije Univ.). Students will also practice delivering regular oral presentations on their topic (with critical feedback on presentation style/skills), culminating in their final project, which will be to submit a Wikipedia.org entry or to develop a class/laboratory demonstration.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing or permit from the instructor.
Required Texts: Readings will be assigned each week from the primary literature based upon course topics chosen.
Topics Include: Some past examples of Wikipedia entries created by students in this course include: "Motor skill consolidation”, "Role of skin in locomotion”, "Parkinsonian gait”, "Locomotor effects of shoes”, "Collective animal behavior”. More topics, links, and info. can be found at: http://www.ap.gatech.edu/Chang/Lab/CNL/APPH6232.html; or by searching for “APPH 6232" on Wikipedia.org.
Neuroethics
PSYC 4803
Instructor:Scott D. Moffat (scott.moffat@psych.gatech.edu)
Credits: 3 hours
Hours:Wednesday 12:05 - 2:55 pm
Location:J.S. Coon, Room 148
Course Description: Neuroethics is an emerging topic of great interdisciplinary interest that considers the implications of findings in neuroscience (broadly defined) on the culture, society, legal system and on how individuals conceive of their nature as human beings. Exploring ethical concerns around neurogenetics, computer intelligence, brain enhancement, and end-of-life issues, are examples that will be discussed
Cognitive Psychology (for non-majors)
PSYC 3012
Instructor: Eric Schumacher (eschu@gatech.edu)
Credits: 3 hours
Hours: Monday/Wednesday/Friday 10:05 - 10:55 am
Location: J.S. Coon, Room 250
Course Description: Exploration of the central aspects of human cognition including pattern recognition, attention, memory, language, categorization, problem solving, and decision making; phenomena and methods are stressed.
