Gaining
insight into the brain
A panel of
experts who conduct a wide range of brain research will come together
for Caltech’s Biology Forum, “Gray Matters: Perception, Intention,
Memory, and Dysfunction in the Brain,” on Thursday, April 25, at
8 p.m. in Beckman Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.
The program,
which is sponsored by Caltech and Huntington Memorial Hospital and cosponsored
by the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group, will cover topics as diverse
as the dynamics of smell, moving robotic limbs using brain signals, and
pinpointing and excising the spot in the brain where epilepsy seizures
occur. “Our speakers exemplify the world-class work that is being
done on the brain right here in Pasadena,” says Paul Patterson, professor
of biology and forum coordinator.
The speakers
will be Richard Andersen, Boswell Professor of Neuroscience; Gilles Laurent,
professor of biology and computation and neural systems; Adam Mamelak,
neurosurgical director of the Epilepsy and Brain Mapping Program at Huntington
Memorial Hospital; and Steven Quartz, assistant professor of philosophy.
Robert Lee Hotz, a Pulitzer Prize–winning Los Angeles Times science
writer, will moderate.
Andersen
and his colleagues are beginning to decipher neuron firing patterns in
the visuomotor part of the brain preceding arm movement. Using this code,
they can now predict where the arm will be moved. The eventual goal is
to develop a neural prosthesis that records this intended-movement signal
from paralyzed patients, enabling them to operate a robot limb or other
external devices.
Laurent studies
neural coding in the brain, focusing on the dynamics of neuronal circuits,
brain oscillations, and the sense of smell in insects, fish, and rodents.
His laboratory studies the general problem of olfactory representations,
such as how brain circuits represent an odor and what they do to optimize
those representations.
One of just
a few such comprehensive centers in the country, the Epilepsy and Brain
Mapping Program maps patients’ seizures and normal brain functions,
pinpoints the seizures’ source, and excises the damaged portion of
the brain. It
provides the most advanced seizure evaluation and treatment now available.
Quartz uses
experimental methods from neuroscience to study traditional problems of
mind, ranging from the formal learning properties of neurally constrained
developing systems to the nature of moral decision-making.
For more
information, call (626) 395-4652 or toll-free 1 (888) 222-5832. Persons
with disabilities can call (626) 395-4688 (voice) or (626) 395-3700 (TDD)
weekdays, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
•
