Vanessa Cooper, MD

Connection to the World (CTW) focuses on the structure and functions of the nervous system and related disorders. CTW integrates several distinct courses taught previously in the course of the first two years of medical student education - fundamentals of Neuroscience, Neurophysiology and Biological Basis of Behavior, Psychiatry, Neurology and Ophthalmology.

CTW is built upon the neuraxis beginning with a description of the anatomy and physiology of the spinal cord and ascending up to the cerebral cortex, adding disease mechanisms and pathophysiology at each anatomical station. Students have a comprehensive understanding of the normal anatomy and physiology of the central and peripheral nervous system along with abnormalities in key neurological, psychiatric and ophthalmologist disorders.

The course incorporates neuropharmacology, neuropathology and neuroimaging into specific disease models and also as distinct and separate pedagogical entities.