10th Distinguished Kavli Lecture - Professor Oscar Marín and Assistant Professor Beatriz Rico, 1st June 2012

Distinguished Kavli Lecture with Professor Oscar Marín and Assistant Professor Beatriz Rico on 1 June

Professor Oscar Marín and Assistant Professor Beatriz Rico will give a lecture on 1 June 2012 at 13:00 and 13:45

Title: Assembly of cortical circuits

Medical-Technical Research Centre (MTFS)
Auditorium, 1st floor
Friday 1 June – 13:00

One of the major goals of neuroscience is to understand how brain function emerges through the assembly of specific neuronal circuits. This is particularly challenging for the cerebral cortex, where dozens, perhaps hundreds of different classes of neurons converge during development to establish specific microcircuits. In simple terms, complex brain circuitries such as those present in the cerebral cortex have evolved as hierarchical networks of excitatory and inhibitory neurons.

In this joint lecture, Oscar Marín will present data on the mechanisms regulating the basic organization of the cerebral cortex. In particular, he will describe a novel mechanism that controls the even distribution of neurons in the developing brain. In the second part of this lecture, Beatriz Rico will summarize recent work on the molecular mechanisms controlling the wiring of specific populations of cortical inhibitory neurons. Specifically, she will describe how schizophrenia susceptibility genes influence the formation of inhibitory synapses, and how abnormal development of these connections disrupt cortical function.