Brain Plasticity: What Is It and Why Is It Important?
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Watch Video Recording:
Presented by
Bruce S. McEwen, Ph.D.
The Rockefeller University
Alfred E. Mirsky Professor
Head, Harold and Margaret Milliken Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology
2005 Goldman-Rakic Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Cognitive Neuroscience
1998 Distinguished Investigator Grant
Dr. McEwen’s research has contributed significantly to elucidating the impact of stress and sex hormones on the brain’s chemistry and structure. Dr. McEwen’s emphasis is on the mechanisms underlying adaptive structural plasticity. Estrogens and androgens induce new synaptic connections in the brain. They also modulate, for better or worse, damage from stroke, head trauma and seizure, as well as age-related changes in brain function. In studying both stress and sex hormones as regulators of structural plasticity in the adult brain, Dr. McEwen and his team examine sex differences and how they develop, along with the influence of early life experiences, in affecting learning, memory and predisposition towards disease.
Dr. McEwen was an assistant professor at Rockefeller in 1966 and was named Alfred E. Mirsky Professor in 1999.
Jeffrey Borenstein, M.D., serves as the President & CEO of the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, the largest private funder of mental health research grants. Dr. Borenstein developed the Emmy Award-nominated public television program “Healthy Minds,” and serves as host of the series. The program, which is broadcast nationwide, focuses on topics in psychiatry in order to educate the public, reduce stigma and offer a message of hope. Dr. Borenstein also serves as Editor-in-Chief of Psychiatric News, the newspaper of the American Psychiatric Association and as an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
