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Event Detail (Archived)

Rethinking Autism and Animal Models: A Systems Perspective

Rockefeller Inclusive Science Initiative Guest Lecture

  • This event already took place in May 2019
  • Carson Family Auditorium (CRC)

Event Details

Speaker(s)
André Fenton, Ph.D., professor, New York University
Speaker bio(s)

The “discoordination” hypothesis asserts that a common pathophysiology underlies the failures of cognitive function that are characteristic of mental inflexibility and failures of cognitive control as observed in a variety of clinical conditions, including autism. The hypothesis derives from the notion that neural computations within and between networks of cells depend upon temporally coordinated neural activity and cognitive impairment emerges when this coordination is sufficiently aberrant. This neural coordination is thought to derive from inappropriate excitatory and inhibitory synaptic transmission that interferes with the ability of neurons to temporally organize their electrical discharge to maintain and switch between separate streams of information flow through neuronal networks. Fenton will describe his lab's approach to understanding cognition and cognitive dysfunction as a systems problem at multiple levels of biological organization. He will focus on work demonstrating that the microstructure of the time series of spatially organized oscillatory events in the local field potential of hippocampus organizes the discharge of principal cells, depends on experience, indicates the subject’s current knowledge, and reveals explains cognitive inflexibility abnormalities in Fmr1-null mutant mice that model the genetic defect that causes Fragile X Syndrome.

Open to
Public
Reception
Refreshments, 1:15 p.m. - 2:15 p.m., Lower Level Greenberg Building (CRC)
Contact
Sofia Avritzer
Phone
(929) 306-8591
Sponsor
Sofia Avritzer
(929) 306-8591
savritzer@rockefeller.edu


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