Symposium on “Brain Development”
July 24-25
Mellon Institute
4400 Fifth Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Description: A major research area in modern neuroscience is brain development. Important topics in this field include the mechanisms of neural circuit formation and plasticity in normal circuits, the development of cognitive abilities and the etiology of neurodevelopmental disorders. Because development is by definition a process of change, it is often better understood by time lapse imaging approaches or minimally invasive techniques or both. This has inspired innovation both at the level of neuroimaging technologies and at the level of experimental design. The 2008 Multimodal Neuroimaging Training Program Symposium on Brain Development has been organized to highlight several aspects of this innovation as well as the data these techniques have made possible. Funded by NIH (R90DA023420).
July 24, 2008
12:00 – 1:00 p.m. Registration (Social Room, MI 328)
Session 1: Cellular Imaging (Conference Room, MI 348)
| 1:00 – 1:05 p.m. | Welcome and opening remarks |
| 1:05 – 1:55 p.m. | Tom Mrsic-Flogel, University College London, Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology “Investigating functional organization and plasticity of visual cortex with two-photon calcium imaging” |
| 2:00 – 2:50 p.m. | Alison Barth, Carnegie Mellon, Department of Biological Sciences and Center for Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC) “Visualizing neural activity at long time scales using a fosGFP transgenic mouse” |
| 3:00 – 3:50 p.m. | Edward Ruthazer, McGill University, Montreal Neurological Institute, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery “Synaptic control of circuit refinement in the developing visual system” |
| 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. | Reception, (Social Room, MI 328) |
July 25, 2008
8:30 – 9:30 a.m. Registration and Continental Breakfast, (Social Room, MI 328)
Session 2: Human Imaging (Conference Room, MI 348)
| 9:30 – 10:20 a.m. | Beatriz Luna, University of Pittsburgh, Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology and CNBC “Pediatric Neuroimaging: What we have learned about the brain bases of cognitive development” |
| 10:20 – 11:10 a.m. | Suzy Scherf, Carnegie Mellon University, Department of Psychology and CNBC “Faces on the Brain: Developing the Neural Basis of Category-Specific Representations” |
| 11:10–12:00 p.m. | Anto Bagic, University of Pittsburgh, Departments of Neurology & Neurosurgery, CABMSI & MEG Program, UPMC Epilepsy Monitoring Unit “Brain development in the fourth dimension: from fetal MEG to MEG studies of children with epilepsy” |
| 12:00 – 1:15 p.m. | Lunch, (Social Room, MI 328) |
Session 3: Developmental Mechanisms (Conference Room, MI 348)
| 1:15 – 2:05 p.m. | Leonard White, Duke University, Departments of Community and Family Medicine and Neurobiology “Imaging the experience-dependent development of direction selectivity in the visual cortex” |
| 2:05 – 2:55 p.m. | Sonja Hofer, University College London, Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology “Combining optical methods to reveal structural correlates of experience-dependent plasticity in the visual cortex” |
| 2:55 – 3:45 p.m. | Justin Crowley, Carnegie Mellon Department of Biological Sciences and CNBC “Proteomic analyses of functionally defined neocortical columns” |
| 3:45 p.m. | Closing remarks, Seong-Gi Kim, University of Pittsburgh, Department of Radiology, Co-Director of MNTP Program, CNBC |
| 4:00 p.m. | External speakers meet with MNTP trainees in the Social Room,
MI 328, snack provided |
Register Online