Hutton Honors College

Networks of the Brain

An undergraduate discussion supper with
IU Professor and Brain Scientist Olaf Sporns

Thursday, March 1, 5:30-7 p.m.
HHC Great Room, 811 E. Seventh Street
Sign-up required

Olaf Sporns, IU professor of psychological and brain sciences, first proposed the idea of a complete map of the human brain network in 1995. Through the NIH's $40 million Human Connectome Project, this ambitious endeavor, in which 1,200 adult brains will be exhaustively mapped, is being undertaken by neuroscientists at several of the world's most prestigious universities; and its potential effects on our understanding of how the human brain develops, functions, and becomes dysfunctional are limitless. In his book, Networks of the Brain, Professor Sporns shows how the fields of computer science, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, cognitive science, and even philosophy are all critical for our understanding of the human brain.

Whatever your major, we hope you will join Professor Sporns for supper and a discussion of how these disciplines come together in cutting-edge research and how research taking place at IU is changing the world. For more about the Human Connectome Project, check out these articles and other sites online: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203750404577175331430981986.html and http://www.economist.com/node/21537050

For more on Professor Sporns, visit these websites: http://psych.indiana.edu/faculty/osporns.php; http://www.indiana.edu/~cortex/CCNL.html

SIGN-UP INFO: If you are interested in attending this event, please check your schedule to make certain you can attend the entire program and then e-mail Anna Duquaine (aduquain@indiana.edu), indicating you wish to sign up for the "Networks of the Brain" program and include your name, e-mail address, year in school, and field(s) of study. Space is limited so we will let you know by e-mail if a space was available when you replied. The lunch is co-sponsored by the Wells Scholars Program.