Sensory Biology

Catalog description

The task of a sensory system is to collect, process, store, and transmit information about the environment. How do sensory systems convert information from the environment into neural information in an animal's brain? This course will explore the ecology, physiology, and behavior of the senses across organisms. We will cover introductory neurobiology and principles of sensory system organization before delving more deeply into vision, olfaction, audition, mechanosensation, and multi-modal sensory integration. For each sensory modality, we will consider how the sensory system operates and how its operation affects the organism's behavior and ecology. We will also explore the evolution of sensory systems and their specialization for specific behavioral tasks. Offered as BIOL 322 and BIOL 422 . Prereq: Graduate standing.