ANNUAL MEETING AND STUDENT RESEARCH CONFERENCE

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

November 5–8, 2020
A Virtual Event

ANJAN CHATTERJEE

RACHAEL CUSICK

BARBARA LANDAU

Dick and Lydia Todd Professor of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins University

Talk
Unforgettable:  When an Amnesic Artist Remembers

Classical theories of memory, starting with patient H.M., suggest two distinct kinds of memory, declarative (i.e. factual) and non-declarative (including skills), that can be differentially impaired after damage to the hippocampus. Landau will explore the case of a highly accomplished graphic artist who sustained major damage to the hippocampus due to viral encephalitis, leaving her with significant amnesia. This case allows us to probe how the brain represents factual knowledge of art and its theory, as well as the practice of art, including underlying skills. Our results suggest that these different aspects of knowledge are part of a complex and intertwined web of knowledge that supports artistic expertise.  

Biography
Barbara Landau is interested in human knowledge of language and space, the relationships between these systems (e.g. how we talk about space), and how they are represented in the mind and brain.  She focuses on the nature of the cognitive "primitives" that guide both typical and atypical development, including cases of congenital blindness, Williams syndrome, and perinatal stroke. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Cognitive Science Society, and was named a Guggenheim Fellow in 2009.

LARRY S. SHERMAN

Professor of Neuroscience at the Oregon Health & Science University and the Oregon National Primate Research Center, and President of the Oregon and Southwest Washington Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience

Talk
Every Brain Needs Music: A Lecture and Performance

The human brain has the unique ability to create, perform, and listen to music. Recent studies ranging from basic cell biology to functional magnetic resonance imaging have indicated that music processing involves unique brain regions, and that practicing and performing music can significantly impact how nerve cells are formed, how they transmit their signals, and how they connect with one another. These findings have profound implications for how music can influence brain development and brain repair in people with brain injuries and neurodegenerative diseases. These topics and more will be discussed by Larry Sherman, who combines live music (he is an accomplished pianist) with a multimedia presentation that explores exciting neuroscience research on how the brain creates, performs, and responds to music.

Read a Q & A about this talk

Biography
Larry S. Sherman is a professor of neuroscience at the Oregon Health & Science University and the Oregon National Primate Research Center, and is the president of the Oregon and Southwest Washington Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience. He has over 90 publications related to brain development and neurodegenerative disease including Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis. He serves on several U.S. and international scientific research review panels. He gives numerous public talks and has made many television appearances discussing topics such as the neuroscience of pleasure and love, music and the brain, and a deeply personal presentation dealing with his recently discovered biological family and exploring the contributions of genes and environment to brain development and personality. He has been running a science fair workshop and a science fair for elementary school students at a local Portland, Oregon, school for the past 15 years, and received the Mary Omberg Award for Science Education in the State of Oregon. The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry and Portland Monthly Magazine recognized Dr. Sherman as one of the “people who are changing our world.” He was also the 2012 Teacher of the Year at the Oregon Health and Science University School of Medicine, and was recognized as an Outstanding Researcher by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.