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KOÇ UNIVERSITY PHYSICS SEMINAR
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Speaker : Kamil Uğurbil, University of Minnesota
Title : Harnessing Physics and Neuroscience towards meeting a Central Scientific Challenge in 21st Century – Understanding Human Brain Function
Date : February 22, 2018 Thursday
Time : 14:00
Place : Founders Hall
web : https://physics-seminars.ku.
Abstract:
A central challenge of the 21st Century is to understand the human brain, not only because we are fascinated by its incredible capabilities but also because increasingly, neuropsychiatric disorders (mental and behavioral disorders plus neurological diseases) dominate the health care burden in all industrialized societies. This challenge has led to major initiatives such as the Human Connectome Project and the BRAIN Initiative in the USA, and the Human Brain Project in Europe. Brain function is mediated by hierarchical local and long-range circuits organized at multiple spatial scales. Bridging and spanning these multiple scales of organization is a daunting challenge but is essential for understanding brain function and ultimately dysfunction. This lecture will be a general overview of recent advances in physics and neurosciences that come together to provide detailed insights into parts of this puzzle and are poised to allow us in the near future to integrate information from the level of a single synapse to whole brain networks that ultimately define behavior.