Sensory Biology BIOR20

Overview

This course offers a broad and practical introduction to how animals use their senses to interpret their surroundings. You will learn about vision and other forms of light reception, smell, taste, hearing, balance, and mechanoreception. More unexpected senses such as electroreception, magnetoreception, as well as senses for temperature and infrared radiation are also covered. By comparing different species, you will see how evolution has shaped solutions that help animals communicate, find food, avoid dangers, and adapt to their environments.

The course consists of a series of modules that address different levels of organisation, both theoretically and in the lab. These include the cell and molecular biology of sensory cells, the function of sensory organs, the structure of the nervous system and its processing and integration of sensory information, as well as how the senses of animals are adapted to the lifestyles and habitats of their owners (sensory ecology).

Teaching and learning

Teaching combines lectures, seminars, demonstrations, laboratory practicals and project work. Supervised activities and practical exercises help you understand how senses are structured and function. You will learn various methods used in physiology, ethology, and human psychophysics. This means you will not only try techniques used in research but also gain a deeper understanding of how we ourselves interpret sensory input.

During the laboratory practicals, you will collect and analyse data. You will practise collaborating, interpreting results, and applying scientific methods in ways that feel concrete and useful. Demonstrations allow you to see how advanced equipment works and how researchers operate in real-life settings.

Towards the end of the course, you will complete a larger project in which you explore your own chosen topic within sensory biology. The project concludes with a full-day symposium where you will present and discuss your findings with other students. Here, you will gain valuable experience in communicating research orally – a skill useful regardless of your future path.

Assessment consists of four written examinations throughout the course, as well as assessed participation in laboratory practicals, seminars and project work.