​Course Content

 

MEDSCI 316 examines the physiology of neurosensory systems in both health and disease, with strong emphasis on clinical relevance and current research advances. The course explores sensory function from whole-system physiology down to cellular and molecular mechanisms. Major sensory modalities covered include vision, hearing, balance, olfaction, taste, touch, and pain. Students develop an integrated understanding of how sensory systems operate, how information is processed by the nervous system, and how dysfunction leads to common clinical disorders. Students are expected to have a solid foundation in neuroscience concepts equivalent to MEDSCI 206 (Principles of Neuroscience).

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Module A: Vision (Primarily assessed in the Mid-Semester Test)

• Introduction to sensory systems

• Optical properties of the eye

• Corneal transparency and molecular physiology

• Lens physiology and cataract formation

• Retinal information processing

• Photoreceptor physiology and dark current

• Phototransduction pathways

• Physiological basis of retinal degeneration

• Primary visual cortex

• Extrastriate visual cortex

• Amblyopia

 

Module B: Smell and Taste (Primarily assessed in the Mid-Semester Test)

• Taste reception

• Taste transduction and modulation

• Olfactory system structure and function

• Olfactory sensory processing

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Module C: Hearing and Balance (Primarily assessed in Module Test)

• Sensory transduction and neural processing in the auditory system

• Auditory evoked potentials and auditory development

• Mechanisms of inner ear disease (I & II)

• Binaural hearing and sound localisation

• Diagnostic approaches and rehabilitation

• Tinnitus

• Vestibular system and balance physiology

 

Module D: Touch and Pain (Primarily assessed in Final Exam)

• Touch receptor mechanisms

• Somatosensory pathways and central processing

• Pain reception and transduction

• Peripheral and central sensitisation

• Descending pain pathways

• Clinical pain management

 

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Course Review

 

MEDSCI 316 is an incredibly rewarding course consisting of very memorable lecturers and fair assessment. 316 is divided into four modules, each focusing on a particular or set of sensory modalities. 

 

The first module was Vision, taught by Paul Donaldson, Julie Lim, Monica Acosta and Steve Dakin. This module started the course off strong and was highly favoured by a lot of students. Paul’s lectures were very intellectually stimulating and we made the most out of them by asking him a lot of questions, which was also very helpful for the midsemester test. Julie’s lecture series and Monica’s lecture were also a fan favourite. Julie’s lecturing style is very clear and concise, aided with very simple yet powerful visuals (no pun intended) on her slides. Steve’s lecture series on the visual cortices were conceptually difficult for some but can be incredibly satisfying once you’ve wrapped your head around them! 

 

The second module was Taste and Olfaction, taught by Nishani Lim and Srdjan Vlajkovic respectively. While two sensory modalities were covered during this module, all of it felt very relevant and necessary in allowing the course to feel complete. Nishani’s taste lectures were very well delivered, concise and very stimulating whilst also being quite fun! Srdjan’s lectures on olfaction were very informative and sometimes a trip that allowed for a lot of bonding between our peers. Vision, Taste and Olfaction were then tested for the midsemester test, which actually felt really fun to study at the time, but had its fair share of challenges (aka the primary visual cortex!). 

 

The third module was Hearing and Vestibular, and was arguably thearguably the most challenging module. Hearing was taught by Haruna Suzuki-Kerr, David Welch, Srdjan Vlajkovic, Grant Searchfield, Michael Sanders. Haruna’s lecture series was an amazing introduction to the intricacies of hearing. She was incredibly nice and accommodating. David and Grant were fresh faces and had really fascinating lectures on sound localisation and tinnitus respectively. The vestibular system was taught by Michael and a few students found his lecture series to be more on the challenging side to wrap your head around, however we found that textbook readings really helped for this one! Again, this module was assessed during the second module test.

 

The last module was Touch and Pain, taught by the one and only Raj Selvatram, and also Johan Van Schalkwyk. The bulk of this module was taught by Raj, who provided us with overview lectures and compulsory complimenting readings that were assessed during the exam. Most students found this style incredibly stressful leading up to the exam, given that the other lectures needed to be studied as well on top of these readings. 

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Updated: 2025