"Cognitive memory and the hierarchical organization of the
hippocampal system"
Mortimer Mishkin
Section of Cognitive Neuroscience
National Institute of Mental Health
Date: 9 Feb. 2004 / Location: CNS
==============================================
"The suprachiasmatic nucleus: A clock of multiple
components"
Michael Lehman
Department of Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy
University of Cincinnati
Date: 23 Feb. 2004 / Location: Med Ctr 

10 a.m.

Dr. Robert Shulman PhD, Yale University School of Medecine
"The Brain Is Very  Active When It's Doing Nothing"
 Discussant: Mark Solms, Ph.D. (Director,
 Neuro-Psychoanalysis Center)
 ALL WELCOME

 Location Auditorium, New York Psychoanalytic Institute, 247
 East 82nd Street, New York 

Thursday 5:30 & 7-8:30 pm

Harold Takooshian, PhD
Past-President, APA International Division 52
(212)636-6393, fax (201)262-7141
www.tamu-commerce.edu/orgs/div52

"TBA"
E.J. Chichilnisky
Systems Neurobiology Laboratories
Salk Institute
Date: 5 Apr. 2004 / Location: CNS
===================================

Neuroregulin 1 / erb signaling in synaptic homeostasis"
Lorna Role
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology
Columbia University
Date: 12 Apr. 2004 / Location: Med Ctr
=============================== 
"Can animals recall the past and plan for the future?"
Nicola Clayton
Department of Experimental Psychology
Cambridge University, England
Date: 19 Apr. 2004 / Location: CNS
========================
"How retinal axons cross the midline: Chiasm cues and
retinal codes"
Carol Mason
Center for Neurobiology and Behavior
Columbia University
Date: 26 Apr. 2004 / Location: Med Ctr
=

Cross Cultural Challenges to Neuropsychology's Brain Theories and Clinical Practice

St. Vincent's Hospital, Cronin Auditorium, 170 West 12th Street, 10th Floor, New York, New York.

Joint meeting with the Psychology Forum of the New York Academy of Sciences, and co-sponsored by the Foundation of the New York State Psychological Association. Continuing Education Credits available.

• Registration information
• Conference Program
• Conference Committee members

11:00am-12:00pm 

"Predicting and perceiving motion in parietal cortex"
John Assad
Department of Neurobiology
Harvard Medical School
Date: 3 May 2004 / Location: CNS
==================================
"Illuminating the function of biological neural
networks"
Gero Miesenboeck
Structural Biology
Sloan Kettering Institute
Date: 17 May 2004 / Location: Med Ctr 

May 14, 2004 1:00 - 5:00pm

Leading neuroscientists will gather at this C250 symposium: Brain and Mind to discuss the accomplishments and limitations of
reductionist and holistic approaches to examining the
nervous system and mental functions. Return to this site in
May to view an online Web archive of the event. 

Columbia University, Miller Theatre, Morningside Campus 

View live Webcast of this event on May 13 and May 14, 2004:
www.c250.columbia.edu

Historically, neural scientists have taken one of two
somewhat parallel approaches to the complex problem of
understanding the biological mechanisms that account for
mental activity. The first, or molecular model, analyzes
the nervous system in terms of its elementary components,
by examining one molecule, cell, or circuit at a time. The
second, or cognitive model, focuses on mental functions in
human beings and animals in an attempt to relate behavior
to higher-order features of large systems of neurons.

The symposium "Brain and Mind," at Miller Theatre May 13
and 14, will help outline the accomplishments and
limitations of these two approaches in attempts to
delineate the problems that still confront neural science.
Organized by Tom Jessell, professor of biochemistry and
molecular biophysics, and Joanna Rubinstein, senior
associate dean for institutional and global initiatives at
Columbia University Medical Center, the symposium features
a number of distinguished faculty members, including Eric
Kandel, Columbia's Nobel Prize–winning neurophysiologist,
as well as visiting scholars from the National Institutes
of Health, Rockefeller University, King's College London,
Caltech, MIT, and elsewhere.

The course of the program, according to Rubinstein, will
"turn from reductionist to holistic approaches," looking
first at what is known about cells and neural networks
before addressing research into perceptions and behaviors.
Participating scholars will discuss current understandings
and answers to key questions: How do the actions of
individual neurons shape the function of neural
populations? What is the underlying logic of signaling in
complex neural circuits? How do dynamic mechanisms modify
the processing of this information? And ultimately, how
does the activity of neural ensembles generate cognitive
and emotional behavior?

They will also confront some of the enduring mysteries
regarding the biology of mental functioning: How does
signaling activity in different regions of the visual
system permit us to perceive discrete objects in the visual
world? How do we recognize a face? How do we become aware
of that perception? How do we reconstruct that face at
will, in our imagination, at a later time and in the
absence of ongoing visual input? What are the biological
underpinnings of our acts of will?

Leading neuroscientists will gather at this C250 symposium
to discuss the accomplishments and limitations of
reductionist and holistic approaches to examining the
nervous system and mental functions. 

Program Schedule
Miller Theatre
May 13, 2004 9:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Doors open at 8:30 a.m.

Session I: Brain Structure

Welcoming Remarks
Lee C. Bollinger, President, Columbia University

Neuroscience and Neuropathology—Converging Streams
Gerald D. Fischbach, MD, Executive Vice President for
Health and Biomedical Sciences and Dean of the Faculty of
Medicine, Columbia University

Potassium Channels
Roderick MacKinnon, MD, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Professor;
Head, Molecular Neurobiology & Biophysics; Investigator,
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Rockefeller University

The Assembly of Neural Circuits in the Developing Brain
Thomas M. Jessell, PhD, Professor, Department of
Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Center for
Neurobiology and Behavior, Columbia University

Scents and Sensibility: Towards a Molecular Logic of
Perception
Richard Axel, MD, Professor, Departments of Biochemistry
and Molecular Biophysics, and Pathology, Columbia
University

The Storage and Persistence of Memory
Eric Kandel, MD, Professor of Physiology and Psychiatry,
Center for Neurobiology and Behavior, Columbia University;
Senior Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

May 13, 1:30 p.m.–5 p.m.
Session II: Brain Function and Disease

Moderator:
Richard Mayeux, MD, Gertrude H. Sergievsky Professor of
Neurology, Psychiatry and Epidemiology at Columbia
University

Brain Development in Healthy, Hyperactive and Psychotic
Children
Judith L. Rapoport, MD, Chief, Child Psychiatry Branch at
National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of
Health 

Rett Syndrome and MeCP2: Steady Development
Huda Y. Zoghbi, MD, Professor, Departments of Pediatrics,
Neurology, Molecular and Human Genetics, Division of
Neuroscience, Developmental Biology and Interdisciplinary
Program in Cell and Molecular Biology at Baylor College of
Medicine; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Sir Michael Rutter, MD, Professor, Medical Research
Council, Center for Social, Genetic and Developmental
Psychiatry; Institute of Psychiatry at King's College
London

Drug Addiction: The Brain in Disarray 
Nora D. Volkow, MD, Director, National Institute on Drug
Abuse, National Institutes of Health

May 14, 9 a.m.–12 p.m.
Session III: Biology of Mind

Moderator
David Cohen, PhD, Professor of Biological Sciences and of
Psychiatry at Columbia University.

fMRI Investigations of Human Extrastriate Cortex: People,
Places, and Things
Nancy Kanwisher, PhD, Professor, Department of Brain and
Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
Investigator, McGovern Institute for Brain Research

Decision-Making and the Neural Representation of Value
William T. Newsome, Ph.D, Professor, Department of
Neurobiology, Stanford University School of Medicine;
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Towards the Neuronal Basis of Consciousness
Christof Koch, PhD, The Lois and Victor Troendle Professor
of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology and Professor of
Computation and Neural Systems, Executive Officer for
Computation and Neural Systems, California Institute of
Technology

Consciousness, Causation, and Reduction
John R. Searle, PhD, Mills Professor of the Philosophy of
Mind and Language, Department of Philosophy, University of
California at Berkeley

Concluding Remarks
Nancy Wexler, PhD, Higgins Professor of Neuropsychology in
the Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry of the College
of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University 

Symposium Co-chairs
Thomas Jessell and Joanna Rubinstein 

7:00-8:30 p.m.

NYNG-NYAS  DISTINGUISHED SPEAKER SERIES                       

Joint meeting of the New York Neuropsychology Group and the Psychology Section of the New York Academy of Sciences.

Brain Basis of Consciousness: Evidence from Neuropsychology
Speaker: Marcel Kinsbourne, M.D. 

Consciousness studies are at an all-time high, but with scant participation by neuropsychologists. Yet evidence from focal brain lesions is crucial for determining whether conscious experience is (1) the distinctive product of a specific locus or network in the brain ("centered brain") or (2) a general property of neural activity throughout the cerebral cortex ("uncentered brain"), and whether consciousness per se controls how the brain works. 

Syndromes of selectively restricted consciousness (unilateral neglect, Anton's syndrome, anosognosias), displaced consciousness (phantom limb, depersonalization, split self awareness, alien hand) and residual performance in the absence of consciousness (blindsight, unconscious priming effects) converge on a conclusion: Consciousness does not exist independent of the underlying cerebral neural circuitry, but is inherent in its activation. It is not independently causal, but only reflects what the cell assemblies are representing.

References

 Kinsbourne M (1996) What qualifies a representation for a
 role in consciousness? In Cohen & Schooler (Eds.)
 Scientific Approaches to Consciousness, Hillsdale, NJ,
 Erlbaum
 
 Kinsbourne M (2000) Consciousness in action: Antecedents
 and origins. Mind and Language 15, 545-555
 
 Kinsbourne M (2000) How is consciousness expressed in the
 cerebral activation manifold? Brain & Mind 1, 265-274

Location: Reiss Boardroom, St. Vincent's Hospital,170 West 12th St (at 7th Ave,) NYC. FREE to all. More information: F. Frank Lefever, Ph.D., fflefever@yahoo.com, FrankLeFever@nyng.org.