Date: Wednesday, March 20, 2024
Location: 46-3002 (Singleton Auditorium) + Zoom Webinar: https://mit.zoom.us/j/99680612935

Speaker: Michael Greenberg, Ph.D.

Affiliation: Nathan Marsh Pusey Professor of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School

Host: Dr. Elly Nedivi

Talk title: How Nature and Nurture Conspire to Regulate Brain Development and Plasticity

Abstract: Experience-dependent neuronal activity plays a critical role in shaping the connectivity and function of the central nervous system.  These actions are mediated in part by the action of a program of neuronal activity-driven gene expression.  Investigation of these gene expression programs has uncovered important roles in dendritic growth, the development of excitatory and inhibitory synapses, the composition of protein complexes at pre- and post-synaptic sites, and the production of neuropeptides that control neural circuit development.  Moreover, defects in the activity-dependent gene program contribute to disorders of human cognition.  Thus, study of this transcriptional response promises new insights into neuronal plasticity and disease.