Neuroscience Labs *FREE*

Welcome to MDCUNE!

The Modular Digital Course in Undergraduate Neuroscience Education (MDCUNE) provides modules of instruction based in neurobiology for faculty to use in their own courses or for independent learning. These modules are inquiry-based but are completely digital so that only computers are required for their execution. These modules have been successfully taught in Psychology and Neuroscience laboratory courses at UCLA and all tutorials and programs are now available for free.

The goal of this project is to create a series of completely digital, inquiry-based laboratory modules in neuroscience and to make them freely accessible to students and faculty at a wide range of institutions.  This project will give students a truly rich, hands-on introduction to neuroscience research while requiring no equipment or facilities other than computers connected to the internet.  The digital and modular nature of these materials provides for a great deal of flexibility in teaching and delivery.

For more specific information about this project see the following article:

Modules, Programs, Presentations:

swimmy_pic

Module:  Swimmy
Developed by Dr. Franklin Krasne

Free and complete software providing neurophysiological phenomena and mechanisms of motor pattern generation in virtual neural circuits.

See the Swimmy Module for more information.


brain_pic

Module: Bioinformatics/Neuroinformatics
Developed by Dr. Jackson Beatty and Dr. William Grisham

IQuantify brain phenotype and perform Quantitative Trait Locus analysis linking variation in the phenotype with chromosomal loci.

See the Bioinformatics Module for more information.


birds_pic

Module: Bird Song System
Developed by Dr. William Grisham

Examining sex differences in songbird nuclei, and comparing effects of various doses of estrogen given to females in post-hatch development.

See the Bird Song System Module for more information.


puzzle_pic

Module: Gel Scramble
Developed by Dr. William Grisham & Dr. James R. Boulter

Unscramble the data and solve the puzzle of the mystery gel.

See the Gel Scramble Module for more information.


cells_pic

Module: Rat SCIA (Spinal Cord Image Archive)
Developed by Dr. William Grisham, Heidi Jones & Sun Hee Park

Analyze sex differences and effects of prenatal antiandrogens on spinal cord motoneurons.  Details are also described in Grisham et. al., 2003.

See the Rat SCIA Module for more information.


frat_pic

Module: Fraidy Rat
Developed by Dr. Franklin Krasne

Free and complete software providing experience with anatomical and physiological bases of fear-learning in a computer-simulated rat.

See the Fraidy Rat Module for more information.


smri_pic

Module:  Structural MRI
Developed by Dr. William Grisham

Quantify the brain and select structures (e.g. amygdalae, hippocampi, thalami) in MRI scans of various patients.

See the Structural MRI Module for more information.


comparative-neuroanatomy

Module: Comparative Neuroanatomy
Developed by Dr. William Grisham

Quantify the hippocampus and associated brain region in numerous mammal species, and compare volumes by animal order.

See the Comparative Neuroanatomy Module for more information.


corpus-callosum

Module: Corpus Callosum
Developed by Dr. William Grisham

Quantify the corpus callosum and its subregions based on two competing schemes of anatomical functionality.

See the Corpus Callosum Module for more information.


chart_pic

Presentation: “Evaluation for Smarties”
Presented by Dr. William Grisham & Lisa Beck McCauley

Presentation for the “Methods for Evaluation and Assessment” workshop at the CCLI-TUES PI Conference in Washington, DC, January 26-28, 2011.

See the Evaluation Presentation for more information.


silhou_pic

Project: iNeuro
Created by Dr. William Grisham

A project dedicated to providing curricula and resources for handling large-scale data analysis.

See the iNeuro Project for more information.


Brain Awareness Week

Project: Brain Awareness Week

We are participating in Brain Awareness Week!

See the Brain Awareness Week for more information.

Image source: Allen Brain Atlas


yellow_brain_pic

Program: NeuroCamp
Created by Dr. Joseph Watson

An introduction to neuroscience through a series of short modules and experiments. For select high school students.

See the NeuroCamp Program for more information.


NeuroScholars Program

Program: NeuroScholars
Created by Dr. William Grisham and Elaine Hsaio

A neuroscience scholars program.

See the NeuroScholars Program for more information.


Comparative Neuroanatomy Research Project

Research: Comparative Neuroanatomy Data
Created by Dr. William Grisham

A research project devoted to comparative neuroanatomy.

See the Comparative Neuroanatomy Research Project for more information.


lab_pic

Data:  Data Entry
Created by Dr. William Grisham

For UCLA students enrolled in the NS101L and Psych116 courses.

See the Data Entry page for more information.