Drugs and the Brain

Overview

This class is a multidisciplinary introduction to pharmacology, neurotransmitters, drug mechanisms, and brain diseases from addiction to schizophrenia.

From Abilify® to Zyrtec®, the world is full of fascinating drugs. If you are poisoned by sarin nerve gas, you may be able to save your life by huffing some BZ nerve gas. This class will explain that chemical curiosity, along with a host of other interesting tidbits of pharmacology. The structure of the class interleaves basic concepts with specific examples and entertaining tangents, so it is not loaded with boring abstract theory. In the first class you will learn what a neurotransmitter is, and you will immediately apply that knowledge when we discuss the mechanism of caffeine. The class is highly multidisciplinary, including topics such as patent law, medical ethics, history, and the physics of crack pipes.

Skills you'll practise

Biology Health & Medicine Pharmacology & Toxicology Science & Math

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages

The real MIT course: lecture notes, problem sets and exams, often with solutions.
Free, with no sign-up or deadlines.
Taught by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the strongest names in its field.
Completely free.
Self-paced: start any time.

Disadvantages

No certificate, no grading and no forum: you need to be self-driven.
Many courses are recordings of past semesters and some have notes only, no videos.
No certificate.

Some points apply to every course of this kind; see how we rank.

Free to learn

Free: All the materials are free to use, with no sign-up. MIT OpenCourseWare gives no certificate.

Taught by

Zak Fallows

Massachusetts Institute of Technology is in Tier 1: world-leading universities and India's top institutes of our institution ranking (98/100). OpenCourseWare is the gold standard for free university material.