CIMIT Summer Education Series 2007 July 31: Series Concludes with Discussion of Brain Plasticity The fourth in the July series of Forums focused on neurotechnology concluded July 31 at a standing-room-only program at the MIT McGovern Institute for Brain Research. The series was called “Neurotechnology: Translating Basic Discoveries into Clinical Promise.” Organizers of the four-session program were Charles Jennings, PhD, director of the McGovern Institute of Neurotechnology (MINT) Program, and Steven Schachter, MD, professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School; director of research, Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; associate director, clinical research, Harvard Medical School Osher Institute; CIMIT Program Leader, neurotechnology; and CIMIT Site Miner, BIDMC. Presenting were John Gabrieli, PhD, Grover Hermann Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and Cognitive Neuroscience, MIT; director, Athinoula A. Martinos Imaging Center, McGovern Institute of Brain Research; and co-director, MIT Clinical Research Center; and Gottfried Schlaug, MD, PhD, associate professor of neurology; chief, Division of Cerebrovascular Disease, director, Music and Neuroimaging and Stroke Recovery Laboratories, BIDMC and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Schlaug spoke on the topic of “Inducing and Imaging Brain Plasticity: Health Subjects and Patients Recovering from Stroke.” He said stroke recovery studies have shown that peri-lesional regions on the opposite hemisphere can either substitute for some of the lost function or be involved in the development of alternative strategies for impairment. Dr. Schlaug’s studies sometimes use music as a means of prompting activity manifested from use of specific parts of the brain. He showed clips of a man who could not speak intelligibly. But when he was asked to sing the same words (while tapping his left hand), he was able to articulate the words that eluded him in speech. Dr. Schlaug said such probing of parts of the brain have the potential to aid stroke victims in their attempts to regain speaking skills. He also said non-invasive brain stimulation tools are now available to enhance desired brain changes, or depress unwanted or maladaptive brain changes. Dr. Gabrieli spoke on the topic of “Functional Imaging of Human Brain Plasticity.” He said that functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can reveal experience-dependent brain plasticity that can be seen in healthy people gaining new skills and in dyslexic children given remediation for reading difficulty. |
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