With the Neural Architectures exhibition as a backdrop, the Brain and Mind series continues as two scientists examine brain mapping and connectome research -- the effort to build comprehensive graphics of neural connections.
Bio
Surya Ganguli
Surya Ganguli is a fellow at the Sloan-Swartz Center for Theoretical Neurobiology in the Keck Center at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and is supported by a career award from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Interfaces in Science Program. At Sloan-Swartz, he conducts research on theoretical principles underlying the organization of neural circuitry mediating learning, memory, and sensorimotor processing. Before joining UCSF, he received his Ph.D. in string theory at the Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics and the Theory Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. His undergrad days at MIT saw him studying electrical engineering and computer science, mathematics, and physics.
Richard Hahnloser
Professor Richard Hahnloser heads the Birdsong Research Group at the University of Zurich's Institute of Neuroinformatics. He is also Dean of the joint master's degree program in Neural Systems and Computation, offered in collaboration with the Mathematics and Natural Sciences Faculty at the University of Zurich and by the Department of Physics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich). This program is an interdisciplinary research platform that offers theoretical and laboratory training in neural computation and systems neuroscience. Hahnloser earned his Ph.D. at the Institute of Neuroinformatics at ETH Zurich in 1999 and was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences (Seung Lab) at MIT and the Biological Computation Research group at Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs.
Medical specialty concerned with nervous system function and disorders. Clinical neurology began in the mid-19th century, when mapping of the functional areas of the brain first began and understanding of the causes of conditions such as epilepsy improved. The development of electroencephalography in the 1920s aided in the diagnosis of neurological disease, as did the development of computerized axial tomography in the 1970s and nuclear magnetic resonance imaging in the 1980s. In addition to dealing with physical disorders (e.g., tumours, trauma), neurology is unique among medical specialties in its intersection with psychiatry. Greater understanding of the brain chemistry of disorders such as schizophrenia and depression has led to a wide array of effective drugs that nevertheless work best in conjunction with psychotherapy. Side effects of drug or surgical therapy can be serious, and many nervous system disorders have no effective treatment.
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