Since 1978, the Neural Systems and Behavior (NS and B) summer course at the Marine Biological Laboratory has been providing intensive training in the concepts and methodology of modern behavioral neurobiology to outstanding pre- and postdoctoral students during early stages of their research careers. Twenty students are immersed for 8 weeks in lectures and laboratory work under the mentorship of some of the best teachers and researchers in the field, augmented by invited seminar speakers and Scholars-in-Residence. This highly integrated and interactive format is rarely available during standard university training. Students come from diverse backgrounds including neuroscience, biology, psychology, medicine, mathematics, physics and engineering. New Co-Directors who assumed leadership of the course in 1995 have maintained the traditional core strengths of NS and B while incorporating new exercises and faculty. Extensive hands-on laboratory training with state-of-the-art equipment includes a variety of invertebrate and vertebrate preparations. The laboratory section, which is divided into four 2-week Cycles begins with fundamental electrophysiological techniques. Students then move on to investigate neuromodulation and reconfiguration of neural circuits, the reception and processing of auditory information studied in three complementary preparations, and learning and memory studied at the behavioral, neuronal population and synaptic levels. In addition to conventional electrophysiological techniques, students learn patch and whole-cell recordings, quantitative behavioral analyses of normal and knockout mice, multi-electrode recordings from freely- behaving rodents during spatial learning, in situ intracellular recording from vertebrate brain, brain slice recordings, computational approaches to complex systems, computerized data acquisition and analysis, cell culture recordings, and neuroanatomical techniques including in situ hybridization. Course evaluations from past and recent NS and B alumni/ae suggest that the course is highly effective in preparing students for creative and productive research careers in neurobiology and behavior. Funding is requested to continue this unique training opportunity in its present form.
