University of Arizona · Department of Neuroscience

Electrical Recordings
from Tiny Brains

NROS 415 is a one-of-a-kind undergraduate laboratory where students record live electrical signals directly from insect nervous systems — and from their own bodies.

3 credit hours Hands-on Laboratory experience Dedicated lab in Gould-Simpson 404

What is NROS 415?

Record from
Living Brains

For the first time ever at the University of Arizona, undergraduates get to record electrical signals from living brains. NROS 415 puts students at the frontier of neuroscience and bioengineering — no prior electrophysiology experience required.

Students spend the semester working with real biological preparations — from fly optic lobes responding to moving visual stimuli, to human electroencephalography and skin conductance. Every session produces genuine, publishable-quality data.

The course runs on a relaxed student-driven schedule, giving students the freedom to explore at their own pace — a philosophy rooted in the belief that great science happens when curiosity is given time and space.

NEURAL RECORDING · FLY OPTIC LOBE 0ms 250ms 500ms +2mV -2mV
2012 First taught
14+ Years Running
5 Lab Stations
200+ students trained

Experiments

16 Weeks of Discovery

Each section of the course lasts about 4 weeks and builds on the last — from basic electrophysiology principles using silver wire electrodes through sophisticated sharp glass electrode recordings from insect visual neurons responding to motion stimuli.

Sarcophaga bullata
Experiment 1

Fly neck muscle recordings

Students dissect flies under the microscope and insert electrodes to record from the neck muscle, as a way of learning to use the array of equipment required.

Sarcophaga bullata
Experiment 2

Fly ventral nerve cord recordings

Students use a similar preparation to the first experiment, but now record from the fly's ventral nerve cord, the homolog of the human spinal cord, where visually-sensitive interneurons can be recorded.

Sarcophaga bullata
Experiment 3

Fly optic lobe recordings

Students use a more advanced preparation, leaning the fly head forward and creating a hole in the back of the head where a sharp glass electrode can be inserted. Using these electrodes, visual motion sensitive neurons in the fly optic lobe can be recorded.

Human EEG / EKG
Experiment 4

Human recordings: EEG, EKG, EMG, and Skin Conductance

From insect to human — students become the subject. Using standard clinical skin electrodes they record their own brainwaves, heartbeat, muscle activity, and skin conductance to gain a fundamental understanding of these crucial signals.

Model Organisms

Life Under the Electrode

Insects: Nature's Electrophysiology Champions

Insects are ideal for teaching electrophysiology. Their nervous systems are robust, accessible, and exquisitely engineered by 550 million years of evolution. Their visual systems, in particular, rival the best machine-vision algorithms ever built.

In this lab we focus on blowflies (Sarcophaga bullata) because they are easy to raise in the lab, large enough to experiment with easily, and have easily accessible muscles, nerve cords, and brains.

Anisoptera Bombus A-M SYSTEMS 1700 DIFFERENTIAL AC AMP

See It in Action

Lab Videos

Watch real recordings made by students in NROS 415 — from fly brain dissections to dragonfly nerve cord recordings to human EEG sessions.

Greatest Hits 2012 Highlights from the inaugural year of NROS 415 — the first time UA undergrads recorded from living insect brains.
Human Neural RecordingsStudents become the experimental subject — recording EEG, EKG, and electromyography from their own bodies.
Dragonfly Nerve CordLive recordings from wild-caught dragonfly ventral nerve cords, showing multi-unit bursting activity.
Fly Optic Lobe RecordingMotion-sensitive neurons in the fly optic lobe respond to directional visual stimuli — captured in real time.
Prof. Charles M. Higgins
Prof. Higgins
Photo at thehigginslab.com

Course Instructor

Charles M. Higgins

Title: Associate Professor, Neuroscience & Electrical/Computer Engineering

Location: Gould-Simpson Building, Room 430

Email: cmh@arizona.edu

Phone: (520) 621-6604

Lab Website: thehigginslab.com

"My driving interest is building truly intelligent machines —
machines that sense, think, and act like living things."

Dr. Higgins holds a Ph.D. from Caltech (1993) and has been at the University of Arizona since 1999. His research spans insect vision, neuromorphic engineering, autonomous robotics, and computational neuroscience. He received funding from MathWorks to create NROS 415 — the first undergraduate electrophysiology lab of its kind at UA — when it launched in 2012.

A recipient of multiple teaching awards and member of the Nifty Fifty (2013–2017), Dr. Higgins is committed to giving undergraduates genuine research experiences. His 2013 TEDxTucson talk and internationally-covered moth-brain robot demonstrate the wonder he brings to every class.