Lectures

The Center for BrainHealth's February lecture series gave leading researchers the opportunity to share cutting-edge discoveries with a welcoming audience hungry for brain health news.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

The Biology of Addiction | Eric Nestler, M.D., Ph.D.

Drug abuse disrupts and corrupts circuits in the brain that regulate responses to rewards enabling a drug to progressively take control over a vulnerable individual’s life.  Dr. Eric Nestler will share how drugs affect the brain and how a better understanding of the life-changing effects could develop more effective treatments of addiction.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

The Drive to Love and Who We Choose | Helen Fisher, Ph.D.

What is love?  Why do we feel chemically drawn to one person rather than another?  Anthropologist Dr. Helen Fisher will discuss how three brain networks—sex drive, romantic love and attachment—interact in the brain.  Join her to learn about the joys and problems of marrying someone quite similar or different from one’s self and how to use biologically-based patterns of personality to find and keep lasting love.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Stress and the Brain | Robert Sapolsky, Ph.D.

Few of us are destined to die of scarlet fever, malnutrition or childbirth.  Instead, we die of diseases of slow accumulation of damage like heart disease, stroke, cancer, and diabetes—diseases of Westernized lifestyle that can be caused or worsened by stress.  Learn from Dr. Sapolsky how stress affects your body, how your body’s reaction can save your life, why some individuals cope better with stress than others, and how can we improve our own coping skills.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Controlling the Brain With Light:
New Technologies for Repairing Neural Circuits | Ed Boyden, Ph.D.

Over a billion people worldwide suffer from brain disorders.  Because of the computer-like complexity of the brain, these disorders are difficult to treat. A new technology—the ability to turn neurons on and off with light—can be used to pinpoint specific brain cells involved with brain disorders, yielding new targets for pharmaceuticals and brain stimulation.  Come hear Dr. Boyden describe this innovative discovery.

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