Session Descriptions

Beauty and the Brain | Penn Center for Neuroaesthetics

Anjan Chatterjee, M.D.

This session will describe our current work in uncovering the human brains' aesthetic responses to people, places, and things, sometimes when we are not even aware of harboring such responses.

Brains Communicating | Communication Neuroscience Laboratory

Bruce Dore, Ph.D.

This session will describe recent work in our lab investigating the social and emotional forces that shape behavior. We'll consider two lines of work: one that aims to develop neural signatures of persuasion and idea propagation, and a second that examines psychological mechanisms that underlie both social influence and emotion regulation.

Brains in the World: The Future of Human Interaction | Platt Laboratory

Michael Platt, Ph.D., Michael Montague, Ph.D., and Scott Rennie, Ph.D.

This session will feature interactive talks and demonstrations of work we are doing to measure brains in the real world, with a particular focus on social interactions.

Dimensional Neuroimaging & Precision Diagnostics | Center for Biomedical Image Computing and Analytics

Yong Fan, Ph.D., Saima Rathore, Ph.D., Monica Truelove-Hill, Ph.D., and Birkan Tunc, Ph.D.

The past 15 years have seen a rapid adoption of machine learning methods in neuroimaging, as a means to provide individualized biomarkers of various brain diseases and disorders. This session highlights examples of application of machine learning methods to brain development and aging, schizophrenia, AD, brain connectomics, and brain cancer. Utilizing recent work addressing disease heterogeneity, these methods lay the foundation for dimensional neuroimaging that relate patterns with underlying (potentially heterogeneous) normal and pathologic neurobiologic processes.

Environmental Effects on Brain Behavior-From Early Traumatic Events to Harsh Environments on Earth and In Space | Brain Behavior Laboratory

Ruben C. Gur, M.D.

The current emphasis on genetics affecting brain health and disease risks neglect of environmental factors, which are generally considered to have limited impact on brain structure and function. One way to elucidate effects of environment is to study individuals exposed to extreme environmental stressors such as poverty, traumatic stressful events, and exposure to harsh conditions such as isolation and hostile habitats. The presentation will show how poverty and traumatic stressful events during childhood and adolescence affect brain and behavioral parameters in the large Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort. We will also describe effects of exposure to severe environmental adversities such as experienced during winter-over in Antarctica and spaceflight. These studies demonstrate that environment can affect both brain structure and function.

Ethical, Legal and Social Impacts of Neuroscience | Penn Center for Neuroscience and Society

Martha Farah, Ph.D., Anna Wexler, Ph.D., and Gideon Nave, Ph.D.

Depending on attendee interest we will explore the implications of brain enhancement, behavior prediction, brain state decoding and anything else you want to discuss. Disclaimer: No definitive answers guaranteed; your own thinking required!

Genes First: 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome Affecting Brain and Behavior | Brain Behavior Laboratory

Raquel E. Gur, M.D., Ph.D, David R. Roalf, Ph.D., Ruben C. Gur, M.D., and James Eric Schmitt, M.D., Ph.D.

The 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome provides a unique opportunity to examine genetic factors implicated in neurodevelopment. We will present data on multimodal brain imaging, relation to clinical presentation, neurocognition and genetics.

Genes, Networks, and Neurodegeneration | Penn Frontotemporal Dementia Center

Murray Grossman, M.D., Corey McMillan, Ph.D., David Irwin, M.D., Ph.D., and Lauren Massimo, Ph.D.

This session will address how genetic variation and epigenetic factors contributes to the clinical, prognostic, and neuroanatomic network heterogeneity of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer Disease (AD), Frontotemporal Degeneration (FTD) and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

Immersive Data Visualization | Institute for Biomedical Informatics

Michael Stauffer

This session will be an introduction to the IBI Idea Factory visualization facility and some of its tools.

Introduction to fully Automatic PICSL Tools for Quantifying Regional Thickness and Volume Measurements from Structural Brain MRI | Penn Image Computing and Science Laboratory

Jeffrey Duda, Ph. D. and Long Xie, Ph.D.

A live demonstration of an open-source tutorial for automated brain MRI morphometry with ANTs and ASHS software.

Introduction to Interactive Image Processing with PICSL Tools | Penn Image Computing and Science Laboratory

Philip Cook, Ph.D. and Sandhitsu Das, Ph.D.

A live demonstration of an open-source tutorial for semi-automated brain segmentation and registration with ITK-SNAP software.

Mapping the Brain and Cognition onto Psychosis and Cannabis Use | Brain Behavior Laboratory

David R. Roalf, Ph.D., J. Cobb Scott, Ph.D., and Daniel H. Wolf, M.D., Ph.D.

This session will present neuroimaging and cognitive markers that have advanced the understanding of psychotic disorders and cannabis use in youth. In particular, we will describe neuroeconomic biomarkers of motivation impairment relevant to psychosis, novel neuroimaging approaches with ultra-high field to examine atypical neurodevelopment, and brain-behavior associations of adolescent cannabis use.

Neuroinformatics with Flywheel | Center for Brain Science

Matt Cieslak, Ph.D., and Ted Satterthwaite, M.D., Ph.D.

In this session we will discuss the Flywheel neuroinformatics platform, including capabilities for data organization, curation, and processing

Neuromodulation in Psychiatric Illness | Center for Neuromodulation in Depression and Stress

Yvette Sheline, M.D., Romain Duprat, Ph.D., and Nicholas Balderston, Ph.D.

Questions for the audience:

1. What is meant by "neuromodulation"?
2. How is TMS performed in neuropsychiatric disorders?
3. How is TMS performed in fMRI imaging to yield a causal approach to understanding brain circuits?
4. What are the treatment outcomes?

Neuromodulation for Repair and Recovery | Laboratory for Cognition and Neural Stimulation

Roy Hamilton, M.D., John Medaglia, Ph.D., Branch Coslett, M.D.

This session will provide an overview of research in Penn's Laboratory for Cognition and Stimulation geared towards using non-invasive neuromodulation techniques to rehabilitate patients with cognitive impairments related to neurologic disorders. Participants will also have an opportunity to tour the LCNS and to experience electrical and magnetic stimulation of the brain.

Population Neuroscience for Understanding Human Variation in the Lifespan | Brain Behavior Laboratory

Theodore Satterthwaite, M.D., Ph.D., Raquel E. Gur, M.D., Ph.D., Tyler Moore, Ph.D., and Ruben C. Gur, M.D.

In this session we will discuss advances in using large-scale efforts to understand individual differences in brain and behavior across the lifespan. In particular, we will focus on data resources new techniques for quantifying variation in brain and behavior during both normal brain development and abnormalities associated with environmental adversity and psychopathology.

The Computational Brain | Computational Neuroscience Initiative

Vijay Balasubramanian, Ph.D., Nicole Rust, Ph.D., and Joshua Gold, Ph.D.

The Computational Neuroscience Initiative (CNI) draws together Penn's scientists across the Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Engineering to spearhead the development and use of inter-disciplinary, quantitative approaches to the study of the brain and the mind. This session will highlight recent research from the CNI investigating diverse systems in the brain from a computational standpoint.

Virtual Reality in Brain Research | Brain Science Center Virtual Reality Lab

Branch Coslett, M.D. and Alex Miller, MSc.

This session will introduce the Virtual Reality Lab and the services that it provides. The potential utility of the approach will be illustrated by brief descriptions of the ongoing research projects that exploit VR to address research and clinical questions.