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Introduction to Session I - Cognitive & Brain Development
Susan Gasser, Friedrich Miescher Institute, Basel, Switzerland
Thursday, Oct. 22, 2015 · 9:04 a.m. · 11m 58s
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Uh the symposium it is my honour and
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actually challenge for me to introduce
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the morning session but also basically
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bring us up to speed so that we can
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actually all appreciate the depth of
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the talks we're going here. Um so the
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brain is the you know it it's been call
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the last great frontier sorry it's it's
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an enormous challenge it's a mixture of
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being hardwired and then plasticity the
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ability to learn to respond the
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environment it's one of the most
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dynamic organs of our body. Um and yet
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it's incredibly complex and that I
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think one of the most fascinating
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things just to think about is that we
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only our brain will be able to
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understand our brain. Um but let me
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just say it as a non arab I'll adjust
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for for the non durable I'll just of
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the audience. Um are written and our
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cognition are mind brain function on
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many many levels and from that and and
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is actually steered what we we need to
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understand actually each of these
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levels if we're gonna understand the
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whole thing so of course at the very
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bottom in our genes and pathways their
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cells that have cell cell contacts
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there are mutations they cause
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neurological disorders and their
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manifest usually in the function of
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neurons so the basic sell the brain is
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there on neurons are strung together
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billions of them in our brain as cell
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in as different cell types their
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connections create circuits and many
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people believe that the basic building
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block of the brain are the circuits it
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circuits not not a cell is gonna be the
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basic unit of of neuronal function then
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make it to the more challenge how do
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these circuits be they olfactory visual
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memory L all kinds of circuits learning
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circuits fear circuits how do they work
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together to make a thinking wide
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organism an organism that had can learn
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complete just can movies hands
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recognise items is we will deal with
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today. And finally far more than that
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how is it that we act are bright our
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brains are able to act recognise the
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minds of others recognised the wheel
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and and knowledge that we can
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communicate interact share build
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societies these are all brain functions
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social understand understandings others
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morals that more easy I think so it's
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not just understanding are word world
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and how it impinges on this it's how
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the world impinge on others. So start
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at the beginning once again the neurons
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the basis than around has cell bodies
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in lots of very long process ease you
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can measure synapses of the key
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communications points of cells you can
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measure the potentials these is the
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let's say the basic if you want the the
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the flow of the energy throughout the
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brain. However no now run is alone and
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as imaged already in in like a two
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centuries ago the neurons are embedded
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in networks in an incredibly dense
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network network network of cell cell
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interactions. So they are compacted
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into this grey matter that you can only
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actually understand on the level of the
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and what you do you realise that there
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are networks you can trace them through
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layers and layers of brain figure out
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who's connected to who and until you
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realise there are subdivisions of the
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brain that are connected within each
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other here's the hippocampus the centre
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of learning where different cell types
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are going to be extending and learn as
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we learn forming new synapses trimming
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them back re forming them trimming them
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back as we go through the process of
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learning and memory. So this is one
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level which we can understand the brain
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prostheses context all this growth and
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re trimming re requires energy requires
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nutrition it is the basis of what we
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learn of what creates our brain. And of
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course is in the sense. And have the
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genetic event. So knowing which cells
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are doing what and how they response to
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the an environment will be the topic of
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duh professor Matthews I'm not doing
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this in the order they're appearing but
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in the order of complexity he will be
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is from professor Stephen Matthews all
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introduce them in detail later from the
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university of Toronto and he will talk
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to us about how changes and feel
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environment and long term effects have
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longterm effects on neurological an
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into can function. So these are at the
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genetic changes that may affect the
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very structure of the brain but let's
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go back what about the organism how
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does an individual integrate signals
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how does a brain basically work when we
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look at a whole brain. Um we can map
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networks of cells we can map activity
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domains of action potentials in in in
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model organisms in model organisms
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actually now we can trace this network
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by individual neurons individually
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encoded individually labelled either
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through the EM network or through
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activity. However we look at the whole
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brain we see well we know all these
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neurons make connections trends through
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different cop compartments. And yeah
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the whole thing looks very symmetric it
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looks almost like a mirror image how
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does it work. And then when we got to
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probe actually activity within a human
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brain you don't use these molecular
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tools that I just flashed through but
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you use FMRI Can summarise measures
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blood flow within different regions of
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the brain and indeed what we learned
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then is that the brain is not entirely
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symmetrical they're different parts
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that light up a specifically in
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response to different actions in
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response to different words in response
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to different concepts. It's an amazing
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sensitivity of the brain mapping of
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lights sites of activity how do the
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domains talk to each other well this is
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of course the life work of our key
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speak to keynote speaker this morning.
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Um as as even as a graduate student
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professor academy get looked at how the
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two parts inside the brain talk to each
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other they're only linked by a network
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fibres called the corpus colours and
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and fact I'm not gonna of course
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explain his whole word but the the
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upshot I'm sure you've heard is that
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actually the two sides of our brain are
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in fact quite different a symmetrical
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as they look on one side can if we want
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to generalise tends to be very mad
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logical mathematical one side tends to
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be intuitive and and sensitive to art
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and music. Um these are embodied in the
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split brain study would Michael got
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something new guest. PHD professor and
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calling brought to fame but when you
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look back at the papers that were the
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ground the groundbreaking and underline
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papers of this theory they were
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actually are keynote speakers. So this
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this is of course in the topic of study
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for fifty years. And I think it's not
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only trying to understand how the two
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halves are different but actually how
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they talk together how they come
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together to create a functional human
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being is the is the fascinating problem
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and and brings us into the realm of
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consciousness how do we know how does
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the right and you know what the left
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hand is doing. So as I said that mark
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keynote speaker will be professor
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Michael got the Amiga he's head of the
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sage centre for the study of mine you
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receive californian santa Barbara you
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did his PHD with roger Sperry cal tech
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in nineteen sixty four was then a
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Cornell medical school Dartmouth
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medical college for many years working
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on exactly this question of the two
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halves of the brain how they work
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separately and apart. And and then
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moved back to california. Now there is
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one more step. We have pathways we have
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circuitry so we have a brain working
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together that gives us behavioural read
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out gives us learning gives us response
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to the world. But in fact there's even
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the concept of mine knowledge that we
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know that we have in mind and that we
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can imagine what other minds are
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thinking and thinking about us that
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brings us actually two are third
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speaker the morning professor Rebecca
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sacked from MIT she's major career
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which is still in a budding stage I'm
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sure on the theory of mine what she
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asked is how is it that are mine knows
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what other minds might be thinking how
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is it that we have a concept of mind
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perception in another being this is a
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question of how those are mine embrace
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social moral more A.'s and ethics. And
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if you looked at a recent papers it
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comes to it in even more complex
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question do we see or perceive what we
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expect to see or are we really open to
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everything coming in in other words are
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we projecting ourselves on our world
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are we projecting. Um the rigidity of
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our brain and that's networks on our
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perceptions or are they always knew. So
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well I actually don't know what she's
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going to talk about I encourage you to
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these are quite different topics we'll
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see but I think I hope I've wet your
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appetite for exploring the whole gamut
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of how our brain functions how
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cognition works. And how we function as
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human beings thinking human beings. So
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without further ado. It's a great
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honour to welcome Michael got to me get
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as I mentioned he's led an exemplary
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career his groundbreaking experiments
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where as a graduate student at cal tech
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I could never imagine as a graduate
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student cutting parts of someone's
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brain so I this is a a sign that he's a
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groundbreaking a person with
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groundbreaking thoughts. And we're very
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honoured to explore the mind if if you
Conference Program
Introduction to the 12th Nestlé International Nutrition Symposium
Thomas Beck, NRC Director
Oct. 22, 2015 · 8:57 a.m.
790 views
Introduction to Session I - Cognitive & Brain Development
Susan Gasser, Friedrich Miescher Institute, Basel, Switzerland
Oct. 22, 2015 · 9:04 a.m.
161 views
The development of a healthy brain
Michael Gazzaniga, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
Oct. 22, 2015 · 9:16 a.m.
398 views
Q&A - The development of a healthy brain
Michael Gazzaniga, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
Oct. 22, 2015 · 9:56 a.m.
Early influences on brain development and epigenetics
Stephen G. Matthews, University of Toronto, Canada
Oct. 22, 2015 · 10:49 a.m.
154 views
Q&A - Early influences on brain development and epigenetics
Stephen G. Matthews, University of Toronto, Canada
Oct. 22, 2015 · 11:29 a.m.
Building the physiology of thought
Rebecca Saxe, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA
Oct. 22, 2015 · 11:38 a.m.
226 views
Q&A - Building the physiology of thought
Rebecca Saxe, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA
Oct. 22, 2015 · 12:10 p.m.
Introduction to Session II - Cognitive Decline
Kathinka Evers
Oct. 22, 2015 · 2:02 p.m.
Brain health & brain diseases - future perspectives
Richard Frackowiak, CHUV University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland
Oct. 22, 2015 · 2:11 p.m.
120 views
Alzheimer's disease: genome-wide clues for novel therapies
Rudolph E. Tanzi, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, USA
Oct. 22, 2015 · 3:15 p.m.
Q&A - Alzheimer's disease: genome-wide clues for novel therapies
Rudolph E. Tanzi, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, USA
Oct. 22, 2015 · 3:59 p.m.
Immunometabolic regulators of age-related inflammation
Vishwa D. Dixit, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, USA
Oct. 22, 2015 · 4:21 p.m.
160 views
Q&A - Immunometabolic regulators of age-related inflammation
Vishwa D. Dixit, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, USA
Oct. 22, 2015 · 4:59 p.m.
Introduction to Session III - Nutrition & Cognitive Development
Pierre Magistretti, KAUST, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia and EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland
Oct. 23, 2015 · 9 a.m.
Energy metabolism in long-term memory formation and enhancement
Cristina M. Alberini, The Center for Neural Science, New York University, USA
Oct. 23, 2015 · 9:16 a.m.
413 views
Q&A - Energy metabolism in long-term memory formation and enhancement
Cristina M. Alberini, The Center for Neural Science, New York University, USA
Oct. 23, 2015 · 9:53 a.m.
Building the costly human brain: implications for the evolution of slow childhood growth and the origins of diabetes
Christopher Kuzawa, Northwestern University, Evanston, USA
Oct. 23, 2015 · 10:29 a.m.
Q&A - Building the costly human brain: implications for the evolution of slow childhood growth and the origins of diabetes
Christopher Kuzawa, Northwestern University, Evanston, USA
Oct. 23, 2015 · 10:57 a.m.
Nutrition, growth and the developing brain
Prof. Maureen Black, University of Maryland, School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA
Oct. 23, 2015 · 11:09 a.m.
152 views
Q&A - Nutrition, growth and the developing brain
Prof. Maureen Black, University of Maryland, School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA
Oct. 23, 2015 · 11:49 a.m.
Introduction to Session IV - Decline & Nutritional Intervention
Tamas Bartfai, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, USA
Oct. 23, 2015 · 12:48 p.m.
179 views
On multi-domain approaches for prevention trials
Miia Kivipelto, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Oct. 23, 2015 · 1:04 p.m.
218 views
Q&A - On multi-domain approaches for prevention trials
Miia Kivipelto, MD, PhD, Karolinska Institutet
Oct. 23, 2015 · 1:39 p.m.
Methodological challenges in Alzheimer clinical development
Lon S. Schneider, Keck School of Medicine of USC, Los Angeles, USA
Oct. 23, 2015 · 1:49 p.m.
124 views
Q&A - Methodological challenges in Alzheimer clinical development
Lon S. Schneider, Keck School of Medicine of USC, Los Angeles, USA
Oct. 23, 2015 · 2:32 p.m.
We are what we remember: memory and age related memory disorders
Eric R. Kandel, Columbia University, New York, USA
Oct. 23, 2015 · 3:03 p.m.
230 views
Concluding Remarks
Stefan Catsicas, Chief Technology Officer, Nestlé SA
Oct. 23, 2015 · 3:50 p.m.
168 views