How the Social Brain Builds Itself—But Sometimes Doesn’t: Genes, Experience, and the Biological Roots of Autism
** watch future Linda Hall Library lectures live at new.livestream.com/lindahall ** April 17, 2018, in the Main Reading Room of the Linda Hall Library. The lecture From birth to age one, an infant’s brain forms 10 million new synaptic connections per second. After that, synapses are pruned away at a net rate of 5 million per second for the rest of childhood. This volcanic churn, driven by genetics and shaped by experience, makes us who we are. Dr. Wang will discuss how developing brains build themselves—and how the process can go off track. In particular, he will focus on the cerebellum, a sensory processor that helps teach the brain to reach its potential. The answers may unlock doors to understanding—and someday preventing—autism. The speaker Sam Wang is professor of molecular biology and neuroscience at Princeton University. His work focuses on the neurobiology of learning, at levels ranging from single synapses to the whole brain. Dr. Wang’s research places special emphasis on the cerebellum, a brain region generally associated with the coordination of muscle movements. He is particularly curious about the cerebellum’s role in cognition and social thought processes, and he is using neural imaging of this part of the brain to search for clues to the causes of autism, a major concern of his laboratory. An alumnus of the California Institute of Technology, where he received a BS with honor in physics, Dr. Wang went on to earn a PhD in neuroscience from the Stanford University School of Medicine. He conducted postdoctoral research at Duke University Medical Center and then Bell Labs Lucent Technologies. In the mid-1990s, he also worked on science and education policy for the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources. Dr. Wang joined the Princeton University faculty in 2000. Dr. Wang’s first book, Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys But Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday Life, published in 2008, was named Young Adult Science Book of the Year by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2011, he published Welcome to Your Child’s Brain: How the Mind Grows from Conception to College, which is available in 15 international translations. Video produced by The VideoWorks of Roeland Park, Kansas.
