Distinguished Lecturer Series in Brain and Cognitive Sciences

Distinguished Lecturer Series in Brain and Cognitive Sciences will begin its second season of public lectures by nationally and internationally-recognized researchers on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 beginning at 4pm.

All lectures are free and open to the public and no reservations are necessary, For more information about the Distinguished Lecturer Series, Contact Jieun Esther Shin at +82-2-880-9108.

Speaker	Data & Time	Title	Location
Min Zhuo	3/17 W 4-6pm	Where is my Pain?	Mok-am Hall, Bldg 501
Sebastian Seung	3/24 W 4-6pm	Tracing the Brain's Wires with Computer Vision	Mok-am Hall, Bldg 501
Raymond Kesner	4/14 W 4-6pm	Different Functions for Different Subregins of the Hippocampus: a Process and Pathway Analysis	Mok-am Hall, Bldg 501
Marcus Kaiser	5/19 W 4-6pm	Ghost in the Shell: Simulating Brain Network Dynamics in Health and Disease	Mok-am Hall, Bldg 501

Wednesday, May 19

Marcus Kaiser
Brain and Cognitive Sciences, SNU
Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, UK

• Title: Ghost in the Shell: Simulating Brain Network Dynamics in Health and Disease
• Time: 4pm
• Location: Mok-am Hall, Bldg 501

The human brain consists of connections between neurons at the local level and of connections between brain regions at the global level. The study of the entire network, the connectome, has become a recent focus in neuroscience research. Using routines from physics and the social sciences, neuronal networks were found to show properties of scale-free networks, making them robust towards random damage, and of small-world systems leading to better information integration. I will describe the main features of the topological and spatial organisation of neural systems and how they differ from artificial systems information processing systems such as computers. Recent clinical studies in the last three years have shown that the network features of the healthy brain differ from that of schizophrenia, epilepsy, and Alzheimer’s disease patients. These features even differ depending on cognitive features such as IQ. I will show how network features and simulations of brain activity can be used to assess and model changes in patients. For example, simulating the spreading of epileptic seizures can inform of underlying reasons for epilepsy. I will finally outline how these methods could improve therapies for mental and cognitive disorders in the future.