Nurturing Neuro

A description of how to dissect an adult fruit fly's brain and ventral nerve cord: anesthetizing flies, obtaining the head and thorax, along with fine removal of the cuticle to obtain the VNC and the brain intact. Tips on how to dissect successfully as a novice.

How sounds get encoded into electrical impulses to the brain. It passes through the pinna and ear canal (outer ear), to the ear drum and ossicles (middle ear), to the cochlea (inner ear). The cochlea contains the scala tympani, scala media, and scala vestibula. Vibration of the oval window vibrates the perilymph, then the endolymph, basilar and reissner's membrane. This stimulates hair cells to depolarize and transmit impulses to the auditory cortex (temporal lobe) via the auditory nerve.

How light is processed in the eye: From photoreceptors (rod & cone cells), through bipolar neurons, to ganglion cells, and finally to the brain via the optic chiasma.

An overview of glial cells, and the structure and functions of their six types - Astrocytes, Satellite Cells, Oligodendrocytes, Schwann Cells, Microglia, and Ependymal Cells.

An overview of the four main processes of neurulation: Formation of the neural plate, neural groove, neural crest and neural tube.

An overview of the fundamental attributes of an action potential: The resting membrane potential, depolarization, repolarization, hyperpolarization, and the refractory period.

An overview of the basic structure of a neuron, and how each structure correlates to its function. Parts discussed include soma, dendrites, axon, myelin sheath, nodes of ranvier, axon terminal, and the synapse.