This lecture provides an introduction to optogenetics, a biological technique to control the activity of neurons or other cell types with light.

This primer on optogenetics primer discusses how to manipulate neuronal populations with light at millisecond resolution and offers possible applications such as curing the blind and "playing the piano" with cortical neurons.

This is a continuation of the talk on the cellular mechanisms of neuronal communication, this time at the level of brain microcircuits and associated global signals like those measureable by electroencephalography (EEG). This lecture also discusses EEG biomarkers in mental health disorders, and how those cortical signatures may be simulated digitally.

This lecture focuses on how the immune system can target and attack the nervous system to produce autoimmune responses that may result in diseases such as multiple sclerosis, neuromyelitis, and lupus cerebritis manifested by motor, sensory, and cognitive impairments. Despite the fact that the brain is an immune-privileged site, autoreactive lymphocytes producing proinflammatory cytokines can cause active brain inflammation, leading to myelin and axonal loss.