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SUMMARY:Sleep\, Touch and the Making of the Human Brain - Professor Topun 
 Austin\, Consultant Neonatologist in Cambridge\, and Honorary Professor of
  Neurophotonics at University College London
DTSTART:20250528T103000Z
DTEND:20250528T113000Z
UID:TALK232639@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Simon Braschi
DESCRIPTION:Sleep is essential for life. It serves a variety of purposes f
 or ensuring brain health including memory consolidation\, emotional proces
 sing and most importantly maintaining neural networks and synaptic plastic
 ity. The newborn infant will spend over 16 hours asleep a day\, the preter
 m infant even more. The nature\, quality and quantity of sleep is very dif
 ferent to sleep at any other age\, and sleep in the newborn is fundamental
  constructing networks in the brain and refining a picture of the outside 
 world.\n\nIt is therefore important be able to investigate the relationshi
 p between functional connectivity and the sleep states in the developing b
 rain\, and how interrupted sleep could contribute to altered neurodevelopm
 ental outcomes in vulnerable infants.\n\nOur brains\, however\, do not dev
 elop in isolation\; from the moment of birth the newborn infant will commu
 nicate with their primary caregiver. This interaction is fundamental in en
 abling the newborn infant to enter a secure internal state to interact and
  learn about the outside world. The earliest and universal form of caregiv
 er-infant communication is affectionate touch.\n\nThis presentation will p
 rovide a rationale for studying sleep\, functional connectivity and neural
  synchrony in the neonatal period and highlight two brain imaging technolo
 gies – diffuse optical tomography and dyadic electroencephalography – 
 both of which have been used by our group to investigate dynamic functiona
 l connectivity in the newborn brain and neural synchrony between mother an
 d infant during affectionate touch. As well as summarising work done so fa
 r\, the presentation will summarise the potential (and challenges) of expl
 oring sleep and touch in the preterm brain.\n
LOCATION:https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87076030035?pwd=XUpJuh8jiR0mae1AhkV79qb
 g8MtlSM.1
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