Do you have the background to take this class?
- The class requires some basic background in neuroscience/biology. Any class where the brain and/or nervous system has been discussed in at least 3 or 4 lectures should do. If you can explain most of these terms, you should be fine: Hemisphere, cortex, neuron, action potential, synapse, neurotransmitter, ion chanel, voltage, current, dendrites, hippocampus, Electro EncephaloGram (EEG), glutamate, inhibition. If you don't, this is not necessarily a problem... feel free to discuss with the instructor.
- The class also requires some background in computer programming. We will use Matlab (similar to R or Octave). The class will not be heavy in programming (as a Computer Science class would be), but one cannot truely understand data analyses without actually doing some! Here is a self test to find out if you have the background. If you can do this (in any language you like), you are probably ok. Again, feel free to discuss if you have trouble...
Self-Test
Generate an array of 1000 real/float random numbers between 1 and 10.
Plot the array.
Compute and plot a histogram (say bins are 0.1 wide) of the differences between 2 consecutive points of the array.
Sort it in ascending order. Compute its mean and standard deviation.
- Feel free to email the instructor if you have questions about your background.