Empathy by Neuroimaging: Making Humanized Brain Maps to Support Scientific Discovery, Education and Improved Health Care

JACOPO ANNESE, DIRECTOR OF THE BRAIN OBSERVATORY

Understanding of the brain’s functional architecture is limited by our ability to integrate data and knowledge gained across spatial scales. This seminar considers the challenges involved in bridging the gap between MRI and digital microscopy, two cardinal neuroimaging modalities that show the human brain at different levels of resolution. We also examine the limitations of population-based anatomical templates and brain atlases in representing variability. We illustrate alternative strategies that combine non-invasive imaging and brain banking to catalogue individual differences in brain morphology; the overreaching goal being to reveal common patterns across case studies that share genetic, medical, and behavioral (neuropsychological) traits. Hence the need to characterize each donated brain precisely with subjective data, including biographical and lifestyle information. Exploring the unique human experience behind each brain creates a new paradigm that fosters ethical conduct in research, deepens science education, and brings us closer to personalized and compassionate medicine.

April 13th, 2017 at 12:00 PM in the Clark Center Auditorium

Hosted by:

Jennifer McNab, Assistant Professor of Radiology, Stanford University

Pre-Seminar April 11th, 2017 at 12:15 PM in Clark S361