2002 LECTURE SERIES

The Magic of Memory: Peeking Behind the Brain's Curtain

Dr. James McGaugh
Director, Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory and Research
Professor, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, UC Irvine
May 22, 2002

Memory seems obvious, yet mystifying. What is memory? How does the brain create and preserve memories? Current research is providing answers to these ancient questions. Dr. McGaugh returns to the Barclay stage to share what researchers are learning about the cooperative and competitive interactions among the many brain systems that play a part in memory. The findings are pulling back the curtain of mystery and revealing the brain's secret systems that make and manage memory.

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Educating the Brain: Lessons from Brain Imaging

Dr. John Gabrieli
Department of Psychology and Neurosciences
Stanford University
March 19, 2002

Modern brain imaging technology allows us for the first time to visualize the changes in brain structure and function that underlie mental abilities such as memory, language and thought. Dr. Gabrieli's breakthrough studies using functional MRI reveal that different kinds of learning are associated with activation of different brain regions. He explores how brain changes mark the growth of mental abilities - such as learning to read - in children.

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Drug Addiction: Why the Brain Loses Control

Dr. Nora Volkow
Associate Director for Life Sciences Brookhaven National Laboratory and Professor of Psychiatry, SUNY Stony Brook
January 30, 2002

Dr. Volkow was the first to image and document profound abnormalities in the brains of cocaine abusers, as well as the first to use imaging to investigate the involvement of dopamine in drug addiction. Her groundbreaking studies have led to a model that views drug addiction as a disease not only of reward, but also of drive circuits.

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