Brain Researchers – A Compendium of Neuroplasticity Resources

Mark Bear, PhD

MIT

Picower Professor of Neuroscience

Brain & Cognitive Sciences

Investigator

Picower Institute for Learning and Memory

Building: 46-3301
Email: mbear@mit.edu
Phone: 617-324-7002

Services Overview

His laboratory is interested in how the brain is modified by experience. He uses a variety of methods (electrophysiological, biochemical, molecular, behavioral, and anatomical) to examine the synaptic modifications that form the neurobiological basis of learning and memory. His work is particularly focused on understanding developmental plasticity in the visual cortex, as well as other forms of experience-dependent synaptic modification in visual cortex and hippocampus. In recent years Dr. Bear has described novel forms of procedural learning in the visual system, and investigated synaptic function in models of fragile X syndrome and other autism spectrum disorders.

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V.S. Ramachandran

Director

Center for Brain and Cognition

Mandler Hall, UC San Diego

9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093-0109

(858) 534-6240

vramachandran@ucsd.edu

Services Overview

Dr. Ramachandran has published over 180 papers in scientific journals (including five invited review articles in the Scientific American).

He is author of the acclaimed book “Phantoms in the Brain” that has been translated into nine languages and formed the basis for a two part series on Channel Four TV (UK) and a 1 hour PBS special in USA. NEWSWEEK magazine has named him a member of “The Century Club” – one of the “hundred most prominent people to watch in the next century.”

He has been profiled in the New Yorker Magazine and appeared on the Charlie Rose Show. His new book, “The Tell Tale Brain” was on the New York Times best-seller list.

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Michael Merzenich, PhD

Professor Emeritus, Otolaryngology

University of California, San Francisco

School of Medicine

513 Parnassus Ave, HSE
San Francisco, CA 94143

415-476-0490
merz@phy.ucsf.edu

Services Overview

Our laboratory is principally interested in 1) defining the neural bases of learning, recognition and memory; 2) defining mechanisms underlying the origins of functional brain illnesses and disabilities; and 3) developing training strategies for remediating learning-disabled and movement-disabled adults and children.

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Research Activities and Funding

Carla Shatz, Ph.D

Director

Shatz Lab

Stanford University

James H. Clark Center
318 Campus Drive W1.1

Stanford, CA 94305-5437

Phone: (650) 498-1970

Services Overview

Dr. Shatz’s research aims to understand how early developing brain circuits are transformed into adult connections during critical periods of development. Her work, which focuses on the development of the mammalian visual system, has relevance not only for treating disorders such as autism and schizophrenia, but also for understanding how the nervous and immune systems interact.

By studying the visual system of mammals, the Shatz Lab discovered that adult wiring emerges from dynamic interactions between neurons involving neural function and synaptic plasticity. Even before birth and long before vision, the eye spontaneously generates and sends coordinated patterns of neural activity to the brain. Blocking this activity in utero, or preventing vision after birth, disrupts normal tuning up of circuits and brain wiring. In turn, neural activity regulates the expression of genes involved in the process of circuit tuning.

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Publications

Research

Videos

Alvaro Pascual-Leone, MD, Ph.D

Curtis Neurosciences — Alvaro Pascual-Leone, MD, PhD

Director

Professor of Neurology
Harvard Medical School

Services Overview

Alvaro Pascual-Leone, MD, PhD, is Professor of Neurology and an Associate Dean for Clinical and Translational Research at Harvard Medical School. He serves as Chief for the Division of Cognitive Neurology and the Director of the Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Dr. Pascual-Leone’s research aims at understanding the mechanisms that control brain plasticity across the life span to be able to modify them for the patient’s optimal behavioral outcome, prevent age-related cognitive decline, reduce the risk for dementia, and minimize the impact of neurodevelopmental disorders (http://www.brainfitclub.org).

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Nim Tottenham, Ph.D

Director

Developmental Affective Neuroscience Laboratory

Schermerhorn Hall – Room 409A

1190 Amsterdam Ave
New York, NY 10027

212-851-0229

danlab@psych.columbia.edu

Services Overview

Nim Tottenham, PhD is an associate professor of Psychology at Columbia University and director of the Developmental Affective Neuroscience Laboratory. Her research examines brain development underlying emotional behavior in humans. Her research has highlighted fundamental changes in brain circuitry across development and the powerful role that early experiences, such as caregiving and stress, have on the construction of these circuits.

She has authored over 80 journal articles and book chapters.

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Mitchell Tyler

Associate

University of Wisconsin–Madison

UW · Department of Biomedical Engineering

University of Wisconsin–Madison

1550 Engineering Dr

Madison, WI 53706

metyler1@wisc.edu

Services Overview

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Deborah Zelinsky, O.D., F.N.O.R.A., F.C.O.V.D.

Director of Research

The Mind-Eye Institute

1414 Techny Rd,
Northbrook, IL 60062, USA

Madison, WI 53706

(847) 501-2020

info@mindeye.com

Website

Services Overview

Dr. Zelinsky is an active member of the World Brain Mapping Foundation and a community leader for the Society for Neuroscience. She also is a member of the American Optometric Association, Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Association and the College of Optometrists in Vision Development. The past thirty years of her optometric career has been spent developing methods for assessment of brain function with emphasis on the often untested linkage between eyes and ears.

The 21st century has technological advancements that encourage people to use peripheral eyesight differently than in the 19th century, when the concept of 20/20 measurements to standardize central eyesight was introduced. Dr. Zelinsky is currently spearheading a campaign to “Leave 20/20 in the 20th Century”, because it is no longer sufficient in lens prescribing. Her patented research in novel usages of retinal stimulation has been described in publications and courses worldwide. Currently, she is Director of Research at the newly formed Mind-Eye Institute.

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Curriculum Vitae