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Plasticity of the brain: the key to human development, cognition and evolution

Ferrier prize lecture (open to the public)
Monday 15 March 2010, 6.30pm- 7.30pm
Doors open at 5.45pm
Speaker: Professor Colin Blakemore FRS
Venue: The Royal Society, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG

How do our genes program the complexity of our brains? Why is human culture so much richer than that of the Great Apes? And how has human cognitive achievement continued to accelerate, when our genetic makeup has changed very little over the past 100,000 years? The answers might lie in the adaptability and plasticity of the brain.

Development of connections in mammalian brains is specified not so much by precise instructions as by general rules, including adaptive mechanisms to fine-tune the connections between different levels in each pathway. And evolution has discovered genetic mechanisms that enable neurons to change the strength of their connections in response to the pattern of activity passing through them. Such plasticity gives us the capacity to remember and learn, and it helps to match our perceptions, thoughts and motor skills to the nature of the world around us. Brain plasticity, although genetically determined, enabled humans to escape from the informational limits in the blueprint of their genes and propelled them into a new phase of evolution.

Admission free – no ticket or advance booking required.

Doors will open at 5.45pm and seats will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.

This event will be broadcast live on the web at royalsociety.org/live
Visit our video archive at royalsociety.tv

Posted: 11th March 2010

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