We are very pleased to present this year's
proceedings of the M.R. Bauer Foundation
Colloquium Series, Scientific
Retreat, and Distinguished
Guest Lecturer Series. Now in its sixth year, the
generous support of the M.R. Bauer Foundation has permitted
the Volen
Center to make emerging knowledge in the quickly moving
field of neuroscience available to a broad audience in
the scientific community. Once again, the range of topics
and importance of findings have proven to be impressive.
We are very grateful to the Bauer Foundation for providing
the resources to disseminate new information in a variety
of useful forums. The colloquia, visiting faculty, and
retreat have each helped to draw neuroscientists together
from throughout the country and to facilitate the exchange
of new ideas and methods. The positive effect of these
programs on research and training is clear in a number
of ways.
The 2000 M.R. Bauer Colloquium Series
again featured talks by some of the most outstanding neuroscientists
at universities, medical schools, and in private industry.
As in past years, the topics ranged widely, from the role
of receptors during the development of connections between
brain cells, to the molecular structure of memory in the
brain and the mechanisms involved in continuing nerve
cell activities. Professor Carol
Barnes, who serves at the University of Arizona's
Center for Neural Systems, Memory, and Aging, delivered
a talk on "Aging and the Hippocampus: from Neural Plasticity
to Ensemble Dynamics." Professor
Martha Constantine-Paton, from MIT's Department of
Biology, addressed the "Function and Regulation of the
NMDA Receptor during Synaptogenesis in the Superior Coliculus."
Professor John Maunsell, a
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator at the Baylor
College of Medicine's Division of Neuroscience, spoke
about "Effect of Attention on Sensory Representations
in the Monkey Visual Cortex." Dr.
David W. Tank, from the Biological Computation Research
Department at Lucent Technologies's Bell Laboratories,
examined the topic, "Cellular and Network Mechanisms of
Persistent Neural Activity." Professor
Patricia GoIdman-Rakic of Yale University's School
of Medicine, presented a talk on "Microstructure of Working
Memory." The Bauer Colloquium Series demonstrated the
quickening activity in a number of important areas of
neuroscience, as new methods and new information came
out of laboratories in a variety of settings.
The M.R. Bauer Distinguished Guest Lecturer
Series completed its second year and again served
as a highlight of the Volen Center's programming. The
program brought to campus two neuroscientists whose work
has affected the entire field. Dr.
J. Anthony Movshon, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Investigator and professor of neural science and psychology
at New York University, is a leader in characterizing
the brain's visual system-understanding how the brain
receives and interprets visual information and then uses
this information to control behavior. Dr.
Michael Merzenich, a professor of otolaryngology at
the University of California, San Francisco, and a member
of the National Academy of Sciences, discovered that the
brain can be modified by experience, a plasticity now
regarded as a general property of the cerebral cortex.
He then used this discovery to design an implant for alleviating
deafness, a training method for dyslexic and language
impaired children, and models for stroke recovery. Movshon
and Merzenich share an unusual facility with interdisciplinary
research and teaching. They have used a wide variety of
specialties in neuroscience to make progress in understanding
how the brain works. Their public lectures at Brandeis
University, presented for a more general science audience,
give an overview of the large problems on which they are
working. Movshon's lecture, "Deconstructing Synchrony,"
describes the binding problem in visual perception-how
the brain puts together a complete image from the pieces
provided by each neuron-and offers some strategies for
solving it that do not require an excessively elaborate
neural code. Merzenich's lecture focuses on his work on
dyslexia and speech problems. His large study involving
more than 30,000 children has helped him to understand
how to apply to dyslexia repetitive exercises that can
serve to re-map the brain. He shows in this talk that
the timing of acoustic signals is vital to understanding
and ameliorating this problem.
Highlighting "Twenty-First
Century Technologies," the 2000 Volen Center Retreat
sponsored by the M.R. Bauer Foundation was held at the
Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts,
on April 25 and 26. This year's event featured talks by
four scientists from outside Brandeis University. Each
scientist specialized in presenting a different technology
or method that is transforming neuroscience as it enters
the new century. The keynote speaker was Professor
Edward Farhi from MIT's Center for Theoretical Physics.
He raised an intriguing possibility in "What You Could
Do with a Quantum Computer If You Had One." In addition,
Professor Bruce Birren, from
the Whitehead Institute's Center for Genome Research at
MIT, presented a talk on "The Human Genome Project: Not
a Thousand People with Pipettes." Professor
John Chapin from Hahnemann University's Department
of Neurobiology and Anatomy spoke about "Using Neuronal
Populations to Control External Devices." The final talk
was given by Professor Bonnie Berger
from MIT's Mathematics Department and Laboratory for Computer
Science. Her talk was "Mathematical Challenges in Protein
Motif Recognition." The Volen Center Retreat again provided
an excellent opportunity for faculty and students to learn
about cutting-edge developments in the field, to meet
new colleagues, and to gain exposure for their work. It
is an especially important occasion for graduate students
and postdoctoral researchers as they begin to establish
a professional presence in their fields. On top of that,
the retreat encouraged cross-disciplinary discussions
among basic researchers in the life sciences, chemistry,
computer science, psychology, and physics, as well as
with their colleagues in medical schools and industry.
The publication of these proceedings is
a key part of the effort to make the Volen Center's work
and mission widely accessible to the scientific community.
We seek to encourage active discussions and collaborations
among the many neuroscientists interested in the fundamental
issues and emerging results addressed in these summaries.
The M.R. Bauer Foundation Colloquium Series, Scientific
Retreat, and Distinguished Guest Lecturer Series have
successfully served to advance the ongoing conversation
among neuroscientists about the most important new and
ongoing issues in the field. On behalf of our colleagues
and the many participants in these Foundation-sponsored
programs, we would like to express our sincere appreciation
to the M.R. Bauer Foundation.
Laurence
F. Abbott
Nancy Lurie Marks Professor of Neuroscience
Director, Volen
National Center for Complex Systems
Leslie
Griffith
Associate Professor of Biology
Acting Director, Volen
National Center for Complex Systems
