Pint of Science NYC Festival | The “Plastic” Brain: Ways the Brain Can Change STANDBY ONLY
Ever read the news and heard about how something can “change your brain?” It turns out that our brains are changing all the time, and this phenomenon is called “neural plasticity”—it’s how we navigate in the world, recognize things, learn languages, and make new memories! Come learn about how the brain changes in various scenarios—when we’re young, old, drunk or recovering from an injury. We might even bring some real human brains that have been turned into plastic for you to look at and touch. (Get it? ‘Cause they’re plastic brains!)
The Hippocampus After a Few (Too Many) Beers
Macayla Donegan (graduate student at Columbia University) Macayla Donegan is a graduate student in Neuroscience at Columbia University. Drawing on information from her own research, she will discuss how the brain forms new memories, and why this gets a bit harder after you’ve had too much to drink.
Brain Plasticity
Chiye Aoki (Professor of Neural Science and Biology at NYU) The goal of my research is to understand the cell biological mechanisms underlying plasticity and stability of neurons. The mammalian brain undergoes dramatic developmental changes after birth to attain neural functions that reflect the experience of early life. Once mature, the pathways of the brain become more stable while maintaining a certain degree of plasticity. For this event I will be talking about how our mental capacity and individual differences are shaped by experiences in ways that are different for early life, adolescence and adulthood.
The Neuroscience of Rehab: Training an Injured Brain to Move Again
David Putrino (Assistant Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College)
David will talk about the role of plasticity in rehab. Recovery of movement after brain damage happens because the brain is clever enough to change itself to adapt to the damage. However, it doesn’t happen for everyone. He is going to discuss how we employ different strategies to make everyone’s brain as plastic as possible.
Ryan’s Daughter
350 E. 85th St., NY 10028
Tickets $5