The subject provides hints and concepts about the operation of the neuronal networks underlying responses to internal and/or external cues. The responses cover a broad range expanding from simple reactions to complex behavioral manifestations, which are exemplified and characterized by experimental, modeling, and diagnostic tools at both healthy and pathological conditions. The gained knowledge is expected to provide ideas for the developing fields of machine-based information processing, machine-biological tissue interfaces, information technology-based diagnostics, and therapy of neurological diseases. Major topics of the course:

1. Olfaction – Being prepared to detect all types of chemical compounds and to figure out the odor by the activity pattern of the neurons. 

2.  How do we identify the objects we see? Information processing along the visual pathway.

3. Problems to be solved when moving robots are built. Levels of motor control.

4. Involuntary and voluntary movement control.

5. Intercellular communication in the nervous system. Formation of cellular networks. Directions of information flow.

6.  Storing information in the central nervous system.

7.  The Central Thalamus: Gatekeeper or Processing Hub?

8. The therapeutic potential of neural stem cells.

9.   Optogenetics revolutionized how we study the brain.

10. Technological innovations in neurosurgery.

11. What can we learn about network operation by studying neurological diseases?

12. Recording cellular and/or network activity and correlating them with various brain states and/or behavioral manifestations.