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The field of neuroscience has exploded into the public eye, complete with the headlines about mind reading, brain scans to determine criminality, telepathy, mind control, and countless more. Within the first talk tonight we will explore the complexity of the brain, and how only a small percentage of your 86 billion neurons function at a given time. We will then also hear how research on proteins is beginning to deliver results worthy of a hyped up media headline… This event will be held in the basement and does not have disabled access.
The Dark Neuron Problem
Dr. Mark Humphries
(Senior Research Fellow at The University of Manchester )
Stick your brain in a fMRI scanner, and what do you see? A picture of the cortex lit up in pretty colours, brain activity everywhere. But it's not true. Most of your cortex is doing nothing - most of it is silent. Like matter in the Universe, most of your cortical neurons are "dark". In this talk we will find out how these dark neurons are silent, why they are silent, and how a brain full of them can still function.
Using Light Sensitive Proteins to Restore Vision
Professor Robert Lucas
(Professor of Neurobiology at The University of Manchester)
Our sense of sight relies upon a group of specialised cells in our retina called rods and cones that detect light. Sadly, rods and cones seem especially sensitive and their death is a common cause of blindness. A potentially exciting new way to restore some vision to blind people is to engineer other cells in the retina to detect light. I will introduce this idea and talk about the steps we have made towards achieving it.
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