“This short clip shows a sparsely-labeled culture of GFP neurons as they extend axons and dendrites during a key period of synaptic development (days in vitro 5 through 10). Over this period, silent synapses first become active and synaptic transmission in the neural network is initiated.”

This Winter, we go deep to explore one of the most complex organs in our body: the brain. Within the brain, the nerve cells or neurons range in the amount of 80 to 120 billion. These neurons are connected by synapses which permit a neuron to pass an electrical or chemical signal to another cell. During the term, we will explore how information is stored from the most basic levels in single neurons all the way to how we process information across the whole brain through various lenses such as movement, synesthesia, sleep, attention and relaxation, personal robotics, music, and film.

Image Credit: Neville Sanjana

Schedule

Winter Start: Mon Nov 28, 2011
Winter Break: Sat Dec 17, 2011 to Tue Jan 3, 2012
Holiday: MLK – Mon Jan 16, 2012
Holiday: Presidents’ Day – Mon Feb 20, 2012
Winter End: Fri Mar 2, 2012
Winter Exhibit: Sun Mar 4, 2012

Coaches

Nell Breyer, MS, MIT/DDes, Harvard/Movement artist/Stage director/ Interactive space designer
Sean Stevens, Alternative Energy Artist/Scientist
Rob MacDonald, Head of Math Department, Beaver Country Day School
Michael Sidorov, Ph.D., Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT
David Wang, PhD, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, MIT
Ryan Wistort, MS, Robotics, Media Arts & Sciences, MIT
Michael Nagle, Co-Founder of Sprout & Co.
Adam Steinberg, Songwriter/Musician/Producer/Engineer
Raghava KK, Artist
Jeff Marx, Composer/Lyricist of musicals