Quick Facts

Medium Of Instructions	Mode Of Learning	Mode Of Delivery
English	Self Study	Video and Text Based

Course Overview

Simulation neuroscience is an up and coming new technique that consolidates all the knowledge spread out throughout the vast field of neuroscience. Therefore, edX designed the online Simulation Neuroscience course to help interested candidates get savvy with this emerging approach. The course aims to imbue you with adequate knowledge to help you understand the brain’s biological mechanisms.

A multi-disciplinary team of renowned neuroscientists helms this one-of-a-kind MOOC in Simulation Neuroscience. With this course, you will gain sufficient knowledge and skills to create simulations of biological synapses and neurons. This programme is part of a broader three-part course, designed to teach you how to use the HBP Brain Simulation Platform.

Moreover, after completing the six-week Simulation Neuroscience training course, you can also get a course completion certificate. However, the certificate is purchasable and doesn’t come with free training. You can also use this certificate to boost your employment opportunities by either attaching it to your CV/Resume or linking it to your LinkedIn account. There are 2 tracks namely the audit and the verified track which are self-paced and can be enrolled in to learn the course completely. The main differences between these 2 tracks are access to the course materials and certificate of participation. During the audit track, the access is limited and no certification is given whereas during the verified track, access is unlimited and a certification is also offered.

The Highlights

Advanced level course
Six-week programme
Five-eight hours of effort required per week
English language course
Video transcripts in English
Self-paced training with limited audit track access

Programme Offerings

advanced level course
Six-week Course
Five-eight hours of effort per week
free course
Purchasable certificate
an École Polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne offering
English language course

Courses and Certificate Fees

Certificate Availability
no

Eligibility Criteria

To get the most out of the Simulation Neuroscience online course by edX, you must have basic knowledge about ordinary differential equations, as well as their numerical solution. Moreover, it would also help if you have prior programming experience in C/C++, Python (preferred), R, MATLAB, or Java.

What you will learn

Knowledge of science

After satisfactorily completing all modules of the online Simulation Neuroscience programme, you can:

Collect, register, annotate different data types of neuroscience
Categorise different characteristic features of neurons
List different characteristics and behavioural aspects of synapses
Describe various simulation neuroscience strategies
Constrain a model using experimental neuronal activity data
Model a neuron with all its constituent parts (soma, axon, dendrites, synapse) as well as its behaviour
Discuss the different data types available for simulation neuroscience

Admission Details

Connect to the course website using this link: https://www.edx.org/learn/neuroscience/ecole-polytechnique-federale-de-lausanne-simulation-neuroscience
Go through the programme details thoroughly. When done, click on the ‘Enroll’ option on the top.
Sign in using your edX credentials. If you don’t already have an account, create one using your email, or Facebook/ Apple/Google/Microsoft credentials.
Once you’re signed in, you will access all the course materials and start learning.

The Syllabus

Understanding the brain
Approaches and Rationale of Simulation Neuroscience
The principles of simulation neuroscience
Data strategies
Neuroinformatics
Reconstruction and simulation strategies
Summary and Caveats
Experimental data
Single neuron data collection techniques
Morphological profiles
Electrophysiological profiles
Caveats and summary of experimental data techniques
Single neuron data
Ion channels
Combining profiles
Cell densities
Summary and Caveats
Synapses
Synapses
Synaptic dynamics

Introduction to neuroinformatics
Text mining
Data integration and knowledge graphs
Knowledge graphs
Ontologies
Neuroinformatics
Brain atlases and knowledge space
Motivation of data-integration
Fixed data approach to data integration
Blue Brain Nexus
Architecture of Blue Brain Nexus
Design a provenance entity
Ontologies
Creating your own domain
MINDS
Conclusion
Acquisition of neuron electrophysiology and morphology data
Generating data
Using data
Design an entity
An entity design and the provenance model
Conclusion
Morphological feature extraction
Morphological structures,
Understanding neuronal morphologies using NeuroM
Statistics and visualisation of morphometric data

Introduction to the single neuron
Introduction
Motivation for studying the electrical brain
The neuron
A structural introduction
An electrical device
Electrical neuron model
Modeling the electrical activity
Hodgkin & Huxley
Tutorial creating single cell electrical models
Single cell electrical model: passive
Making it active
Adding a dendrite
Connecting cells

Modeling synaptic potential
Modeling the potential
Rall's cable model
Modeling synaptic transmission between neurons
Synaptic transmission
Modeling synaptic transmission
Modeling dynamic synapses tutorial
Defining your synaps
Compiling your modifies
Hosting & testing your synaps model
Reconfigure your synaps to biological ranges
Defining a modfile for a dynamic TM synapse
Compiling and testing the modfile

Constraining neuron models with experimental data
Constraining neuron model with experimental data.
Computational aspects of optimization
Tools for constraining neuron models
Tutorials for optimization
Setting up the components

NMC portal
Accessing the NMC portal
Running models on your local computer
Downloading and interacting with the single cell models
Injecting a current

Instructors

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)

1: Which web browser should I use?

The Open edX ecosystem works best with new versions of Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. It can also be accessed using Internet Explorer version 9 or above. However, the HBP platform, on which you will perform your weekly exercises, works only with Chrome and Firefox.

2: What programs or tools do I need?

You will learn to use tools like various neuroinformatics platforms and HBP brain simulation. For this, you will be set up with a collab on the HBP platform in the second week.

3: I’m an EPFL student. Will I get any ECTS (credits) for this programme?

EPFL Doctoral students might get credits for taking this course. It would help if you got in touch with your programme director for more details.

4: Who are the programme instructors for the Simulation Neuroscience programme?

The online Simulation Neuroscience training programme is mentored by Henry Markram, Sean Hill, Dr. Felix Schürmann, Idan Segev, Werner Van Geit, Lida Kanari Dr. Srikanth Ramaswamy, Samuel Kerrien, and Dr. Eilif Muller.

5: How long does the course go on for?

The programme is six weeks in duration.