2003 Public Lecture Series
Brain Matters: A Revolution in Neuroscience Part 1
The past 30 years have witnessed a revolution in our understanding of the brain and in our prospects for curing the many severe diseases and injuries of the nervous system that affect tens of millions of people around the world. Through extensive basic research in animals and clinical research in humans, we now know that the nervous system is not fixed or hardwired, that it can be modified throughout life by a wide variety of mechanisms. Our growing understanding of these mechanisms and of how we may control them holds the promise of powerful new treatments for Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, stroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease), spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, and many other devastating disorders that were once thought to be incurable. The lecture will review the exciting progress of recent decades and illustrate with specific examples how our new knowledge and technology can help those with disorders such as spinal cord injury and ALS.
Jonathan R. Wolpaw, M.D.
Dr. Wolpaw is a board-certified neurologist who has been with the Wadsworth Center for 23 years. He received a medical degree from Case Western Reserve University in 1970 and then completed a residency in neurology at the University of Vermont and a fellowship in neurophysiological research at the National Institutes of Health. He is currently chief of Wadsworth's Laboratory of Nervous System Disorders and a professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences of the University at Albany's School of Public Health. Dr. Wolpaw's major research interest is in developing and using operant conditioning of spinal reflexes as a new model for studying learning and memory in the vertebrate nervous system. These methods are now being applied to the study of spinal cord injury and to the development of new treatment methods. He is also developing EEG-based brain-computer interface technology as a new communication and control channel for those with severe motor disabilities.