Global Arc

Introduction to the biophysics of nerve cells and synapses, and the mathematics of neural networks. How can networks of neurons compute? How do we model and analyze data from neuroscientific experiments? Data from experiments running at Princeton will be used as examples (e.g., blowfly visual system, hippocampal slice, rodent prefrontal cortex). Each topic will have a lecture and a computer laboratory component. Prerequisite: MOL 410, or elementary knowledge of linear algebra, differential equations, probability, and basic programming ability, or permission of the instructor. Two 90 minute lectures, one laboratory.

Computational psychiatry is an emerging field of research that strives to leverage recent discoveries in the computational basis of high-level cognitive functions in order to understand, diagnose, and treat mental illness. Psychiatry is the only field of medicine where there are currently no laboratory tests, due in part to a lack of understanding what is the biological basis of symptoms. Computational theories of the brain's mechanisms for evaluation and decision may provide a foundation for such an understanding, and tasks measuring their function can offer objective measures. This seminar will discuss recent findings in this field.

In this course, we will explore the diverse and complex interactions between the brain and the immune system from the perspective of current, cutting-edge research papers. In particular, we will focus on the molecular mechanisms of these interactions and their role in brain development and function as well as their potential contributions to specific neurological disorders, including autism. In the process, students will learn to read, critically evaluate, and explain in presentations the content of articles from the primary literature. Prerequisites: MOL 214/215.

This course explores methods for recording and analyzing neural activity from populations of neurons at cellular resolution, and the scientific discoveries that such methods have enabled. Topics include methods for electrical and optical recording of large populations of neurons, as well as their application to studying neural dynamics underlying animal behavior. The course will survey seminal journal articles in the field and will provide students with hands-on practice analyzing real neural population recording datasets.

This course examines behavior, learning, and cognitive capacities with a focus on the cerebellum, a brain structure that is universal to vertebrates. The cerebellum's microcircuit architecture is largely conserved, so that its local information processing can provide a rigorous starting point for analysis. Cerebellar function will be considered in terms of evolution, development, microcircuit physiology, connectomics, long-distance connectivity to the rest of the brain, animal behavior, and human function and dysfunction, including autism. Readings will draw on original literature, and weekly discussions will be led partly by students.

The course purports to introduce students to various topics in the history of ideas in Japan between 1600 and 1945 as well as to the social and political influence that these ideas had in the three centuries and a half of revolutionary changes from premodernity to the end of the Second World War. It introduces first the language and worldviews of various schools of thought that flourished between 1600 and 1868; it then surveys the main ideas that accompanied Japanese modernization and scientific developments in the late nineteenth century and the birth of modern Japanese philosophy in the twentieth century.

The history of Japan from the origins of the Japanese people to the establishment of Tokugawa rule in 1600, using the epic war tale The Tale of the Heike as a lens. Particular emphasis will be placed on institutional and cultural history. One three-hour seminar.

The history of Japan during the period of Samurai rule. Distinctive features of Tokugawa society and culture from the foundation of the regime in 1600 to its decline in the 19th century, the opening of Japan to Western contact, the course of economic development, and the consolidation of the Meiji State. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

This course centers on a set on cinematic genres-melodrama, horror, and action-that have proven to be particularly suitable to global adaptation and appropriation. Their mobility may stem from the physical responses (tears, fright, violence) they represent or elicit. We will examine films from Hollywood, European, and East Asian cinemas to interrogate the question of cultural translatability, while at the same time reconsidering the social and cultural effects of genre itself. One of the central questions of our investigations will be: How do cinematic forms and their translation inform the discourses of nation and cultural difference?

The seminar explores the interplay of religious and aesthetic -- especially poetic -- practice in ancient China, and how the performance of texts in religious contexts contributed to the formation of Chinese cultural memory and identity from 1200 BCE through 200 CE. Combining anthropological, art historical, and literary analysis, the discussion centers on the performative nature and functions of texts and artifacts (including texts as material artifacts) in their social and religious spaces. Emphasis on close analysis of original texts (in English translation) and visuals.