Course Co-ordinator: Dr D Scott

Pre-requisite(s): BI 20B2 and BI25B2 (other relevant courses may also be considered by the course coordinator)

The course will include lectures on functional neuroanatomy, autonomic and neuromuscular pharmacology, neuropharmacology to include functional aspects of excitatory and inhibitory amino acids, monoamines, peptides and nitric oxide. It will explore pain, opioids and narcotic analgesics and drugs depressing CNS function (e.g. cannabinoids, antidepressants, anticonvulsants and antipsychotics), as well as discussing the issues/mechanisms of tolerance and addiction.

We will review applications of various drugs that affect the nervous system and explore how they were discovered and developed, how they are applied in everyday life, what the potential disadvantages of them might be, and also what the future holds for the development of novel drugs used to treat diseases/disorders of the nervous system. We will briefly also review the differences in how medical scientists and psychologists view what goes wrong during such diseases and disorders.

Finally, the course will explain various basic concepts in physiology and pharmacology and show how we statistically analyse data from experiments using novel drugs and what conclusions we can draw from such investigations.

4 one-hour lectures per week, 2 three-hour data-handling practicals over 6 weeks.

1st Attempt: 1 one and a half hour essay examination (70%) and in-course assessment (30%).
Continuous assessment comprises: 1 data handling/statistical analysis exercise , one 1500 word essay, 2 case studies.

Resit: 1 one and a half hour essay examination (70%) and previous continuous assessment (30%).