Seminars & Colloquia

Neural Tissue: From single neurons to whole brains

Kraastan B. Blagoev
Los Alamos National Laboratory and
NMR Center, Massachusetts General Hospital

Wednesday, January 21, 2004
4:00 pm, Higgins 310
Refreshments precede the talk, Higgins 230, 3:30 pm

Non-invasive imaging technologies are creating a revolution in neuroscience and neurology. In turn, these technologies advance in accord with our understanding of the physical principles that underlie the "imaging properties" of neural tissues. Today, in particular, the major challenge in this regard is to determine the imaging-relevant physical differences between healthy and diseased tissue. Now through the synergy of theoretical physics and chemistry, computer modeling and data mining, and a variety of invasive and non-invasive experimental probes, researchers have made significant progress in understanding the workings of brain tissue. Combining the expertise in computer modeling and theoretical physics at the Los Alamos National Laboratory with the imaging capabilities at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School our group is generating new exciting technologies that will help reveal the large scale structural and functional organization of the brain.