"How Education Transforms Functional and Structural Brain Development: from combinatorial affordances within symbolic systems to entrenched societal inequities"

Human brain development from childhood to adolescence diverges from other primates in a staggering way: neurobiological maturation in this life stage is protracted in humans by over an entire decade. Relatedly, when resources permit, we tend to devote a significant portion of this life stage to didactic teaching and learning. Most recently, our uniquely human penchant for exploiting combinatorial affordances of elementary symbols has become the basis for cultural evolution. Given these insights, understanding how didactic teaching of combinatorial systems transforms human brain developmental is increasingly becoming a central focus in the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience.

In this talk I will provide an overview of recent progress in Stanford's Educational Neuroscience Initiative (SENSI) to address several key questions: How are cortical systems for reading tuned by educational experiences with combinatorial symbols? How are combinatorial operations with non-symbolic number tied to high-school math achievement? How do neurobiological versus sociobiological vulnerabilities differ in their impacts on the development of these foundational intellectual skills? How are national achievement differences in U.S. school uniquely linked to developmental trajectories of white matter tracts? How can introducing brainwave learning technologies into early elementary school classrooms capture causal impact of teacher choices on functional changes in neural systems? How can empowering children to see and question their own neural development change their education experiences?

"Predictive Computations in the Human Brain"

We perceive the world by rapidly transforming streams of meaningless sensory signals into meaningful tokens, such as hearing the word ‘brain’ or seeing an apple. How can our brain do this so quickly, efficiently, and robustly? The key that may unlock this ability is prediction: The brain is constantly forming predictions of its input, which are compared with incoming information to update predictions, in a virtuous cycle.

In my talk, I will discuss how the brain may implement prediction, drawing on behavioral and neuroimaging evidence. I will also discuss recent work using neuroscience-inspired AI algorithms (Artificial Neural Networks, ANNs), as models of neural information processing to understand predictive processing in more natural worlds.

“Influences of Genes and Environment on Human Brain Development”

Human brain structure changes throughout the lifespan. In childhood and adolescence, and even in adulthood, when the brain seems relatively stable, do individuals differ in the profile and rate of brain changes. Altered brain growth or rates of decline are implicated in psychiatric, developmental, and neurodegenerative diseases. Human brain structure changes require longitudinal measurements, i.e., repeated measurements within the same individuals over time. Longitudinal measurements in childhood, adolescence and emerging adulthood characterizing neurodevelopmental patterns, and in older adulthood characterizing aging patterns, can be used to disentangle varying from stable aspects and to establish the temporal patterns and their impact on mental health.

Human brain structure changes are under the influence of genes and a varying environment. Genetic factors involved in brain development and aging overlap with those for cognition, and risk for neuropsychiatric disorders. We recently found genes for rates of changes for 15 brain structures. Moreover, we demonstrated genetic overlap with cognitive functioning, depression, schizophrenia, insomnia, height, body mass index and smoking. Indeed, we find that our genetic architecture is associated with the dynamics of human brain structure throughout life. In this talk, the influences of genes and a varying environment on human brain development will be explored and how this may impact brain health and mental health.

“Exploring the Human Connectome”

The human brain is a remarkably efficient communication network. At the cellular level, neurons transmit and integrate information via billions of dendrites, axons, and synapses. At the whole-brain macroscale, global brain systems and functional networks are interconnected through a complex web of long-range connections, which shape large-scale brain dynamics. The connectome refers to the complete wiring diagram of all neural interactions within the nervous system, forming the substrate for functional communication and neural integration.

The fields of connectomics and network neuroscience study the connectome using mathematical tools from graph theory and network science. Their united goal is to understand how brain connectivity shapes behavior and cognition, and how dysfunction in these connections may relate to mental and neurological disorders.

In this talk, we will explore the human connectome, discussing fundamental features of its topological organization and how network characteristics influence complex brain function. We will examine the interaction between structural and functional connectivity and draw comparisons to brain networks in other species. This will include a discussion of how general features of the connectome may underpin both shared and species-unique aspects of cognition and behavior, and how it may set apart our brain from those of other primates. Do we humans have a unique brain network with unique capabilities? How do fundamental principles of connectome organisation relate to human brain disorders?

“(Re)-Building a cognitive shield against depression: Neurocognitive working mechanisms of preventive interventions for lowering relapse risk in depression”

Marie-José van Tol is Professor of Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, in particular the cognitive and affective mechanisms underlying mood disturbances (Mood & Cognition) at the University of Groningen. She is also chair of the Young Academy (De Jonge Akademie) of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). Her work is very interdisciplinary, combining techniques and knowledge from different fields to improve our understanding of the neurocognitive basis of affective abnormalities occuring in psychiatric disorders.