Faculty Forum Online: New Research on the Brain, May 15, 2013
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The human brain is, perhaps, the most complex organism to have evolved on this planet. Thinking about the brain raises a broad array of questions: what is the mind, what is intelligence, how does the brain discover order from complex sensory inputs, and so on.
In the next Faculty Forum Online broadcast, Professor James DiCarlo, head of MIT's Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, will comment on the department’s pioneering work. DiCarlo, an investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, will introduce his current research and take live questions from the worldwide MIT community on Wednesday, May 15, from noon to 12:30 p.m. (EDT).
Register for this free event—New Research on the Brain—to receive the link for live viewing. After the event, return to Slice and continue the conversation in the comments.
About James DiCarlo
James DiCarlo examines the complex network of brain regions that allows one to recognize vast numbers of objects rapidly and effortlessly. DiCarlo also develops computational models of the brain with the ultimate goal of building a computer simulation of the brain's capacity that could provide insights into the sensory deficits that occur after stroke or brain injury.
His lab seeks to understand the mechanisms underlying visual object recognition—specifically how sensory input is transformed by the brain from an initial representation (essentially a photograph on the retina) to a more powerful representation that can allow the brain to solve the computationally difficult problem of object recognition.
DiCarlo joined the McGovern Institute in 2002. He received his bachelor's degree from Northwestern University, his doctoral degrees from Johns Hopkins University, and did postdoctoral work at Baylor College of Medicine. He is a past recipient of John Hopkins’ Martin and Carol Macht Young Investigator Research Prize, the Alfred P. Sloan Research fellowship, and the McKnight Foundation’s Neuroscience Scholar Award.
RELATED
Video: Meet James DiCarlo, from MIT TechTV James DiCarlo to head Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, from MIT News McGovern Institute Profile: James DiCarlo
Comments
Wendy Keilin
Wed, 05/15/2013 12:40pm
Here are all the comments and questions I posted during the session. I'd love to get answers / be in touch with anyone at BCS or elsewhere who "gets it" and would like to discuss and/or collaborate:
I'm interested in the practical applications, specifically how to help normal, healthy adults perform better / achieve more of what they want. We all seem to have multiple "brains" or brain components that are often at odds with each other. How can we better integrate these parts and get them working together to achieve our aims?
Is anyone at BCS working on anything related to my previous question? How can I participate / collaborate / learn from the latest research, as an implementor and trainer of "what works" for human beings?
(Note I typed when Judy was explaining Lumosity: Lumosity = brain training)
Regarding cardiac & enteric brains, he needs to read "mBraining", which I just learned about yesterday and have not read yet ... It says these are actual physical / neurological centers of intelligence that help us make decisions and take action. The book claims to be based on neuroscience. I'm eager to read it!
(In response to Jim's answer to my question:)
I'm talking, for example, of ... one part of me (you?) wants to lose weight, be fit, look great ... but there seems to be a whole separate part of me (us) that's driven to eat that whole bag of cookies!
(Not just me, of course - in my experience, virtually all human beings experience various sorts of inner conflict on a regular basis. I'm eager to learn what brain science has to teach us about how, on a practical, real-world, day-to-day basis, we can find our way through these conflicts with less stress and more satisfying results.)
Areeb Usmani
Fri, 06/21/2013 10:27am
In one ingenious experiment, Merzenich mapped a normal monkey's hand, then the brain scan found that they each had one large map for their fused fingers .
Simarly, if the brain if defficient of oxygen( during death) can the brain maps fuse together in order to reduce the oxygen requirement of the brain?
A doubt came into my mind when I saw a chicken being slaughtered( by Islamic method) and the bird moved it leg in random directions initially but a seconds before death it moved both its leg together as if they are joined together.I noticed it several times.
So is there a possibility that their brain maps of left leg and right leg are combine to form a single brain map corresponding to both left and right leg?
Kyla Thomas
Wed, 05/15/2013 4:38pm
Hi Wendy,
It looks like you just found out about the resource I was gong to point you to for understanding how to resolve inner conflicts utilizing the notion that we have multiple brains. I have watched webinars presented by the authors of the mBraining book. It is intriguing to me and I think it's worth further investigation. I was just communicating with one of the authors today!
By the way, I'm an alum that lives in California as well.
Kyla
Daniel Kopyc
Wed, 05/15/2013 12:49pm
Hello Jim -- and thanks for the interview today. Interesting stuff, and I wish we had had more time.
I have a rather general question about the "state of neuroscience", specifically w.r.to addressing diseases of the brain. A close family member suffers from Parkinson's Disease (PD). It's frustrating to me -- and millions of others, naturally -- that in "treating" this disease and others like it, that even in the year 2013 (!) our only recourse is to ameliorate its symptoms with "brute force" drugs. These drugs, for example Sinemet (Levodopa/Carbidopa), Requip, and Tasmar, Comtan (COMT Inhibitors) attempt to simply regulate neurotransmitter levels, as far as I understand -- and yet at a very gross level (as an oral medication), with wild variances in effectiveness, both throughout the day for a patient, as well as over the course of the disease.
Do you think there is *any* near-term hope to understand how to better treat even the symptoms of such terrible disabling diseases like PD? Are there better "imaging" tools being developed for studying the cause and/or symptoms of PD, for example -- or region-specific "electronic" means of controlling the disease that show any real promise? I realize this is more of a "medical" questions, but I'm curious if you or your colleagues have any insight into the "path forward" for brain diseases like PD and Alzheimer's -- as well as motor neuron diseases such as ALS.
Kind regards,
--Daniel K., Portland, Maine.
Kyla Thomas
Wed, 05/15/2013 12:44pm
Also, Lynn from California, thank you for your questions during the live Q&A. I'm also interested in the Enteric Brain and how it interacts with the Head or Cephalic Brain. Please feel free to be in contact.
Kyla Thomas
Wed, 05/15/2013 12:40pm
I am very interested in the Science of Education. Does anyone have leads to organizations or researchers who are working on bridging the science to application gap so that our children can benefit now??