Special seminar by Prof Miguel Castelo-Branco

Date and time: 15 May 2024, 11am to 1pm

Talk location: Redmond Barry Building, Room 1004

Light refreshments location: Redmond Barry Building, Level 12 pantry

Talk details:

Title:

Neural mechanisms underlying visual plasticity in health and disease, during development and in adulthood

Abstract:

Our research program focuses on the interplay between low and high-level visual mechanisms and their impact on neural plasticity. We show that in retinal gene therapy approaches cortical factors influence the outcome. We also demonstrate for the first time evidence for adult visual plasticity in a genetically determined disorder of peripheral vision, Retinitis Pigmentosa. This follows another study where we show how the brain reorganizes due to genetically determined subclinical axonal ganglion cell loss. We demonstrated that a retinal trigger (axonal oedema) at the level of the retinal ganglion cell may lead to visual cortical reorganization. Concerning changes in visual experience in adulthood, we discovered how the brain adapts to the visual dysphotopsia caused by the new visual environment imposed by multifocal intraocular lenses. Finally, we address molecular mechanisms of plasticity underlying effects of rehabilitation techniques, boosting neural plasticity, in neuropsychiatric disorders, such as neural modulation of brain regions involved in visual attention.

Speaker bio:

Miguel (MD PhD) obtained his PhD at the Max-Planck Institute for Brain research, Frankfurt, Germany and is now Full Professor at the University of Coimbra. He has held a Professorship in Psychology in 2000 at the University of Maastricht, the Netherlands. Before, he was a Postdoctoral fellow at the Max-Planck-Institute for Brain Research, Germany where he had also performed his PhD work. His achievements are well reflected in publications in top General Journals, such as Nature, Neuron, eLife and PNAS and top Neuroimaging and Clinical Translational research journals He performs translational neuroscience work linking the following fields: 1. Ageing of Vision in Health and Disease, Perceptual Decision and Attention 2. Neurodegenerative and Neurodevelopmental Disorders with a focus of mechanisms of impaired neurotransmission 3. Early and late Cortical plasticity: implications for neuro-rehabilitation.