Neuroscience, AI and Society Seminar

Neuroscience, AI and Society Seminar

Nicole Rust, Professor of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania

Date:  October 1, 2024
Time: 7 pm; the lecture will be followed by a reception in the Rotunda.
Location: University of Washington Health Sciences K069

Title: Elusive Cures: Why Neuroscience Hasn’t Solved the Mystery of Brain and Mental Illness

Abstract: Understanding the human brain is one of the great scientific challenges of our time. Progress in brain research has been accelerating rapidly for decades, following breakthroughs in biotechnology and artificial intelligence. But the translation of discoveries about the brain into treatments and cures for brain and mental disorders has not happened as many expected. What’s been missing?

In this event, Nicole Rust will take us on her personal journey to find answers. Drawing on her decades of experience on the front lines of neuroscience research, she will reflect on the history of our quest to understand the brain, how far we have come and what remains to be discovered. She will argue that treating a brain or mental disorder is more like redirecting a hurricane than fixing a domino chain of cause and effect, and that only by facing the brain’s complexity head-on will we have any hope of finding better treatments and cures. She will profile the pioneering ideas about the brain and mind that researchers are using to tackle this complexity, and the reasons we can be optimistic that the next few decades of brain research will be more impactful than the last.

Upcoming NBio Seminars at the Univ. Washington

NBIO Presents: Rachel Wong (UW Neurobiology & Biophysics)
Title: Circuit assembly and reassembly of the vertebrate retina
WHEN Thursday, Sep 26, 2024, 9:30 – 10:30 a.m.
CAMPUS LOCATION Magnuson Health Sciences Center G (HSG); ROOM G328
Abstract:
Vision relies on the output of the many functionally distinct and precisely wired circuits of the retina. Using transgenic techniques, imaging methods and electrophysiology, we seek to uncover the developmental mechanisms that help establish the wiring specificity of retinal circuits in vertebrates. Moreover, because injury or disease can cause rewiring after maturation, we are also reconstructing retinal circuits impacted by the loss of input in order to identify the challenges to circuit repair.

NBIO Presents: Christine Constantinople (New York University)
WHEN Thursday, Oct 17, 2024, 9:30 – 10:30 a.m.
CAMPUS LOCATION Magnuson Health Sciences Center G (HSG); ROOM G328

NBIO Presents: Marcos Sotomayor (The Ohio State University)
WHEN Thursday, Oct 24, 2024, 9:30 – 10:30 a.m.
CAMPUS LOCATION Magnuson Health Sciences Center G (HSG); ROOM G328

Einar Hille Memorial Lecture In Neurosciences: Richard Tsien (New York University)
WHEN Tuesday, Oct 29, 2024
CAMPUS LOCATION Magnuson Health Sciences Center G (HSG); ROOM G328

NBIO Presents: Yi Gu (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke)
WHEN Thursday, Nov 14, 2024, 9:30 – 10:30 a.m.
CAMPUS LOCATION Magnuson Health Sciences Center G (HSG); ROOM G328

NBIO Presents: Talmo Pereira (Salk Institute for Biological Studies)
WHEN Thursday, Nov 21, 2024, 9:30 – 10:30 a.m.
CAMPUS LOCATION Magnuson Health Sciences Center G (HSG); ROOM G328