07/15/05 (Lang Lecture)

Modification of the cerebral cortex by experience

Mark F. Bear, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Introduction by Vince Dionne, Boston University


Lecture Abstract
Proper brain function requires the sculpting of connections between neurons during early postnatal life. Synapses are formed and strengthened, weakened and lost, under the influence of sensory experience. Over four decades of research on visual cortex have culminated in a deep understanding of the mechanisms responsible for whittling away inappropriate synaptic connections. Insights derived from this line of research have recently suggested the remarkable possibility of new treatments—and possibly a cure—for the most common inherited form of human mental retardation.


Mark Bear is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Picower Professor of Neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to moving to MIT in 2003, Dr. Bear was on the faculty of Brown University School of Medicine for 17 years. After receiving his B.S. degree from Duke University, he earned his Ph.D. degree in neurobiology at Brown. He took postdoctoral training from Wolf Singer at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, Germany, and from Leon Cooper at Brown. His honors include young investigator awards from the Office of Naval Research and the Society for Neuroscience, election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2003, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004, and the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology in 2005.

Vince Dionne is a Professor of Biology at Boston University (BU) and Director ad interim of the Boston University Marine Program. Dr. Dionne joined the BU Marine Program in 1993, moving to Woods Hole from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine where he had
been a faculty member for 15 years. After receiving his B.S. degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Arizona, he did postdoctoral training with Charles F. Stevens at the University of Washington, Seattle.

About the Lang Lecture
The annual Lang Lecture is held in memory of Dr. Fred Lang, a neurobiologist with the Boston University Marine Program at the MBL who was killed tragically in an automobile accident in December 1978.