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SUMMARY:From brain descriptions to brain explanations - Professor Robert T
 urner\, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences\, Leip
 zig
DTSTART:20181107T200000Z
DTEND:20181107T210000Z
UID:TALK110950@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Fionn Bishop
DESCRIPTION:The study of human brain anatomy began with the ancient Egypti
 ans and progressed in the hands of the Greeks Alcmaeon\, Galen and others.
  It received further impetus from Renaissance artists\, and scholars such 
 as Andreas Vesalius. The science of neurology was given its name and estab
 lished by the English doctor Thomas Willis by 1664. During the 20th centur
 y the fine structure of the human brain was studied using increasingly pow
 erful microscopy and cell staining techniques. But it was not until the 19
 80’s\, following the invention of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) by th
 e physicists Mansfield and Lauterbur\, that it became possible to observe 
 living human brain in any useful detail. In the early 1990’s the physici
 sts Ogawa\, Kwong and Turner discovered that the level of cerebral blood o
 xygenation could also be observed in real time using MRI\, opening the doo
 r to the precise identification of parts of the brain actively involved wi
 th the performance of specific tasks. This technique rapidly became the ce
 ntral methodology in the establishment of the discipline of imaging neuros
 cience.\n\nThe huge challenge now is to find ways to link known brain stru
 ctures to observable behaviour\, by means of mechanistic causal modelling.
  This entails systematically relating the microstructure of brain tissue\,
  which is often organized into discrete territories such as cortical areas
  and deep brain nuclei\, with the role that it plays in mental operations 
 such as memory\, language\, object recognition\, decision making\, plannin
 g\, and the building and negotiation of human relationships.\n\nI will des
 cribe recent progress in more precise identification and description of br
 ain components in living human brain\, in improved estimation of connectio
 ns in the brain\, and in characterizing brain activity using non-invasive 
 MRI techniques. Many of these advances have been made by researchers with 
 a strong background in physics.\n\nMRI is the only in-vivo imaging modalit
 y that gives mesoscale neuroanatomy\, but it reveals only myelin and iron 
 anatomy. The distribution of these substances may provide in-vivo clues to
  important cortical microcircuits\, already known from cadaver brain studi
 es. Recent advances in measurement of changes in cerebral blood volume all
 ow cortical-layer dependent neural activity to be visualized\, and thus en
 able the development of predictive models of individual human brain functi
 on. Together these advances may provide explanations of how our brains ach
 ieve some of the tasks that help us to survive and flourish.
LOCATION:Wolfson Lecture Theatre\,  Department of Chemistry\, Lensfield Ro
 ad
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