Course Graduate neuroscience course

The course Graduate Neuroscience Course -Aarhus Masterclasses is being offered by the Graduate School of Health, Aarhus University, 2025.

Criteria for participation: University degree in medicine, dentistry, nursing, or Master’s degree in other fields and/or postgraduate research fellows (PhD students and research-year medical students).

Aim: The aim of the course is to train participants at the highest level through a series of neuroscience masterclasses dealing with state-of-the-art concepts and applications within all areas of basic and clinical neuroscience. A second aim of the course is to facilitate further collaborations and enhance insight into local neuroscience expertise in Aarhus by stimulating interactions among the participants and lecturers.

Learning outcomes: Participants will develop a thorough theoretical knowledge within all areas of neuroscience. The course is structured according to the esteemed advanced level textbook entitled “Neuroscience” by Purves et al. (published by Sinauer Associates, Inc.) and all sections will be dealt with.

Course materials will be a combination of original articles and reviews supported by the textbook Purves Neuroscience. This enables each participant to personalize the preparation for the individual sessions, depending on their educational background. Overall, this ensures that every participant develops and strengthens their knowledge within the broader neuroscience field.

The book will form the fundamental basis of the course, however not all specific details will be discussed. Participants are expected to obtain the book and prepare the relevant chapters before the sessions. Emphasis will be put on most interesting areas, as evaluated by the lecturers and their research profile.

Topics include e.g. Electrical Signals of Nerve Cells, Synaptic Transmission and Plasticity, Animal Models in Neuroscience, The Sensory System, Pain, Motor Control, Brain Development, Repair and Regeneration in the Nervous System, Sleep, Speech and Language as well as Biomarkers in Neuroscience. Additionally, lecturers will present selected data from their own research to provide the most up-to-date techniques and knowledge, while at the same time, stimulate collaborations among neuroscience groups and disciplines in Aarhus.

Through these masterclasses, participants will markedly expand their portfolio of neuroscience knowledge. They will strengthen their abilities to critically evaluate and discuss neuroscience literature as well as identify challenges and new frontiers within basic and clinical neuroscience. Overall, cross-disciplinarity will be nourished, to benefit participants’ current projects as well as their future career.

Workload: The full workload of the course is planned to be 36 hours of teaching activities. Additional hours should be expected for preparation.

Content: The course is divided into modules consisting of lectures which are followed by group discussions and problem solving, in relation to the topics of the lectures. Each course day will typically consist of one morning module (9:15-12) and one afternoon module (13:15-16).

The course will consist of two weeks of teaching, with three days (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) each week. In total six days of teaching. A few days may be organized as online teaching only.

The course is based on classroom teaching with a few online elements. There will be no laboratory/wet activities during the course. There is no exam.

Instructors: Lectures at the course comprise esteemed researchers based in Aarhus, including scientists affiliated with NeuroCampus Aarhus as well as invited experts.

Venue: Aarhus University, Aarhus

Participation in the course is without cost for:

• PhD students, Health Research Year students from Aarhus University
• PhD students enrolled at partner universities of the Nordoc collaboration
• PhD students from other institutions in the open market agreement for PhD courses

Course dates:

• 04 February 2025 09:15 - 16:00
• 05 February 2025 09:15 - 16:00
• 06 February 2025 09:15 - 16:00
• 18 February 2025 09:15 - 16:00
• 19 February 2025 09:15 - 16:00
• 20 February 2025 09:15 - 16:00