Monday, June 11, 2012, 11:45-12:30

Functional Architecture of Face Processing in the Primate Brain
Leslie Ungerleider, Laboratory of Brain & Cognition, NIMH, Bethesda, MD, USA

Lecture Abstract:
Face recognition is a remarkable ability, given the tens of thousands of different faces we can recognize, sometimes even many years later after a single encounter.  This unique ability likely depends on specialized neural machinery dedicated to face processing.  This talk will focus on the network dynamics among regions mediating the recognition of both face identity and facial expression in the primate brain.

Biography:
Dr. Ungerleider is Chief of the Laboratory of Brain and Cognition at the National Institute of Mental Health and an NIH Distinguished Investigator. She hs been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine.

Monday, June 11, 2012, 17:15-18:00

Spectral Fingerprints of Cognitive Processing
Andreas Engel, Dept. of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany

Lecture Abstract:
Cognition results from large-scale interactions among functionally specialized but widely distributed brain regions. The talk will focus on recent studies that exploit correlated neuronal oscillations to characterize such large-scale cortical interactions in the human brain. It will be argued that large-scale oscillatory coupling provides a level of description that is particularly fruitful for identifying unifying principles underlying cognitive processing.

Biography:
Andreas K. Engel is Professor of Physiology and Director of the Dept. of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany. He is also coordinator of Collaborative Research Centre SFB 936 at Hamburg, Germany. His research interests are: role of synchronization and oscillations for cognitive processing; neural mechanisms of intermodal and sensorimotor integration, emotion, working memory, decision making, attention and consciousness; changes of large-scale network dynamics in neurological and psychiatric disorders; brain-computer interfaces; bioinspired robot architectures.
 

Tuesday, June 12, 2012, 10:00-10:45

The Topological Definition of Perceptual Objects: Theory, Behavioral Evidence, and Neural Representation
Lin Chen, State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

Lecture Abstract:
What is a perceptual object? Intuitively, it is the holistic identity preserved over shape-changing transformations. According to the global-first topological approach, this core intuitive notion of an object can be characterized as topological invariants, such as holes. Behavioral experiments demonstrated that changes in topological properties disturbed object continuity, leading to the perception of an emergence of a new object; and fMRI experiments showed that the topological changes activated the anterior temporal lobe and amygdale.

Biography:
Prof. Lin Chen is Director of State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, and Beijing MRI Center for Brain Research, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is an elected member of Chinese academy of Sciences, and the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012, 17:15-18:00

Structural and Functional Architecture of the Human Cerebral Cortex: Multiscale and Multimodal Maps
Karl Zilles, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Research Centre Jülich, and C. & O. Vogt Institute, University Düsseldorf, Germany
 

Lecture Abstract:
The contribution of “tedious anatomy” for understanding brain structures underlying various types of neuroimaging data will be demonstrated. Localization beyond the common misuse of so-called “Brodmann maps”, multiscale (from molecules to circuits) and multimodal (cyto- and receptorarchitecture) mapping strategies, as well as an ultra-high resolution approach to structural connectivity will be discussed.

Biography:
Karl Zilles is Professor of Brain Research at the Cécile & Oskar Vogt-Institute, University of Düsseldorf and Director at the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Research Center Juelich, Germany. His research topics are molecular organization, architectonic mapping and connectivity of the cerebral cortex, and transmitter receptors in brain diseases.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012, 10:00-10:45

Brain Plasticity-Based Therapeutics
Michael Merzenich, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

Lecture Abstract: 

Neuroplasticity-based therapeutics strongly rely on the neurophysiological and brain imaging-based descriptions of neurological abnormalcy as it applies to specific clinical indications.  It also provides us with a powerful basis for confirming that a specific therapeutic approach is driving appropriate neurological 'corrections'.  A consideration of some of the basic principles guiding this therapeutic approach shall be a lead-in to a specific example (schizophrenia) for which this approach is being applied.

Biography: 

Dr. Michael Merzenich is Professor Emeritus from the Keck Center for Integrative Neurosciences at the University of California at San Francisco, and the co-founder of three brain plasticity-based educational and medical software companies (Scientific Learning Corporation; Posit Science Corporation; Brain Plasticity Institute).  His research has focused on understanding the functional organization of sensory-perceptual-cognitive systems in mammalian brains, on brain plasticity phenomenology and mechanisms, on the contribution of brain plasticity to the expressions of neurological and psychiatric illness, and on the brain plasticity-based treatments of developmental and acquired impairments in children and adults.
 

Wednesday, June 13, 2012, 17:15-18:00

Networks of Anatomical Covariance
Alan Evans, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

Lecture Abstract:
The investigation of brain connectivity using either functional  (fMRI,PET) or white matter (DTI, DSI) metrics is now widespread. This talk will explore the potential for revealing brain connectivity via covariance of grey matter metrics (cortical thickness, cortical volume, grey matter density) in human development, disease and in rodent models.

Biography:
Alan Evans is James McGill Professor of Neurology, Psychiatry and Biomedical Engineering at McGill University.  Based at the Montreal Neurological Institute since 1984, he has extensive background in neuroimaging methodology with 400+ peer-reviewed publications.  His recent work has focused on structural connectivity, high-performance computing and multimodal databasing.

Thursday, June 14, 2012, 10:00-10:45

Meta-Analytic Modeling of Human Neural Systems: Data-Driven Hypothesis Generation
Peter Fox, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA

Lecture Abstract:
Stereotactic coordinates provide a standard framework for reporting structural and functional neuroimaging results. Widespread adoption of this standard has created an extensive, diverse literature uniquely well-suited for large-scale data mining. In response, a family of statistical methods for coordinate-based meta-analysis (CBMA) have been developed. Collectively, CBMA methods provide data-driven hypothesis generation and neural system modeling, including emergent properties (e.g., meta-analytic connectivity maps). A particularly powerful application of CMBA is creation of models for constrained exploration of new primary data sets.

Biography:
Dr. Peter Fox is Director of the Research Imaging Institute and Professor of Radiology, Neurology, Psychiatry and Physiology at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. After a residency in Neurology, Dr. Fox trained in functional brain imaging under Dr. Marcus Raichle at Washington University. Dr. Fox is the originator of the BrainMap project (www.brainmap.org), which includes the BrainMap database and a suite of tools for coordinate-based meta-analysis and neural-system modeling.