Topic: brainstem

Build a three-dimensional understanding of human brain structure through focused lectures, filmed dissections and live expert commentary. The programme follows cortical landmarks and the limbic lobe into subcortical white matter, ventricles, hippocampus, fornix, basal ganglia and thalamus, with further exploration of the brainstem and cerebellum. Traditional blunt dissection reveals major pathways, while axial, sagittal and coronal MRI comparisons connect anatomy to imaging. Consolidation and self-assessment sessions help participants test their recognition of structures. Live online via Zoom

David Chalmers’s (1995) hard problem famously states: “It is widely agreed that experience arises from a physical basis, but we have no good explanation of why and how it so arises.” Thomas Nagel (1974) wrote something similar: “If we acknowledge that a physical theory of mind must account for the subjective character of experience, we must admit that no presently available conception gives us a clue about how this could be done.” This presentation will point the way towards the long-sought “good explanation” -- or at least it will provide “a clue”. I will make three points: (1) It is unfortun

Maintaining posture is a vital challenge for all freely-moving organisms. As animals grow, their relationship to destabilizing physical forces changes. How does the nervous system deal with this ongoing challenge? Vertebrates use highly conserved vestibular reflexes to stabilize the body. We established the larval zebrafish as a new model system to understand the development of the vestibular reflexes responsible for balance. In this talk, I will begin with the biophysical challenges facing baby fish as they learn to swim. I’ll briefly review published work by David Ehrlich, Ph.D., establishin