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SUMMARY:Transdiagnostic approaches to understanding neurodevelopment - Dr 
 Duncan Astle\, MRC Cognition &amp\; Brain Sciences Unit
DTSTART:20211109T160000Z
DTEND:20211109T170000Z
UID:TALK162037@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Dervila Glynn
DESCRIPTION:*Theme: Lifelong Brain Development*\n\n*Transdiagnostic approa
 ches to understanding neurodevelopment*\n \n*Abstract:* Macroscopic brain 
 organisation emerges early in life\, even prenatally\, and continues to de
 velop through adolescence and into early adulthood. The emergence and cont
 inual refinement of large-scale brain networks\, connecting neuronal popul
 ations across anatomical distance\, allows for increasing functional integ
 ration and specialisation. This process is thought crucial for the emergen
 ce of complex cognitive processes. But how and why is this process so dive
 rse?  We used structural neuroimaging collected from a large diverse cohor
 t\, to explore how different features of macroscopic brain organisation ar
 e associated with diverse cognitive trajectories. We used diffusion-weight
 ed imaging (DWI) to construct whole-brain white-matter connectomes. A simu
 lated attack on each child's connectome revealed that some brain networks 
 were strongly organized around highly connected 'hubs'. The more children'
 s brains were critically dependent on hubs\, the better their cognitive sk
 ills. Conversely\, having poorly integrated hubs was a very strong risk fa
 ctor for cognitive and learning difficulties across the sample. We subsequ
 ently developed a computational framework\, using generative network model
 ling (GNM)\, to model the emergence of this kind of connectome organisatio
 n. Relatively subtle changes within the wiring rules of this computational
  framework give rise to differential developmental trajectories\, because 
 of small biases in the preferential wiring properties of different nodes w
 ithin the network. Finally\, we were able to use this GNM to implicate the
  molecular and cellular processes that govern these different growth patte
 rns.\n \n\n*Biography*: Duncan is a Programme Leader at the Medical Resear
 ch Council's Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit\, and a Fellow of Robinson 
 College\, University of Cambridge. Prior to this he completed his training
  at Durham and Nottingham\, and held fellowships at Oxford\, Royal Hollowa
 y and Cambridge. His research uses multiple methods to explore how brain s
 ystems develop through childhood\, and how they vary across children and a
 dolescents. This programme of work has been supported by the Royal Society
 \, the British Academy\, the Medical Research Council\, the Economic and S
 ocial Research Council and various charitable foundations.\n\nRegister in 
 advance for this seminar: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMpfu2
 hqzItEtCynH1goRGoGVVywItdgKrJ\n\nAfter registering\, you will receive a co
 nfirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
LOCATION:Register on Zoom - link in abstract
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