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Vision of the Future (Part 1)

Susumu Tonegawa Sydney Brenner Richard Axel Ira Flatow: December 1, 2005; Running Time: 1:27:39

About the Lecture

About the Lecture

What better way to inaugurate one of the world’s premiere neuroscience research centers than a tour highlighting some of the field’s most exciting work.

Susumu Tonegawa provides not only a history and overview of the Picower Institute, but a rundown of the latest insights about memory and cognition emerging from his and colleagues’ labs. Morgan Sheng has figured out how to visualize at high resolution the molecular architecture of neuronal synapses; Matthew Wilson can detect a pattern of firing neurons in the formation of spatial memories as rodents explore a new environment, and then watch these neurons firing in the same pattern as the animals sleep—suggesting a mechanism for consolidating memory; Mark Bear is delving into the molecular mechanism behind fragile X mental retardation, and exploring possibilities for pharmacological correction; Earl Miller’s work with monkeys indicates that learning may happen first in a more primitive area of the brain, monitored and then ‘approved’ by the brain’s executive branch, the prefrontal cortex. And Tonegawa has zeroed in on the genes responsible for specific kinds of memory circuits in the brain’s hippocampus. As for the future, Tonegawa calls for “new technology, based on totally new principles, which can analyze what’s going on in the brain at the level of a single synapse,” as well as new diagnostic and therapeutic methods for psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases.

Sydney Brenner says the “connection between genotype and phenotype, especially for complex animals, will remain the most challenging problem in biology.” He says there are deep intellectual problems to be solved, such as computing behavior “from a wiring diagram,” which must be accomplished if we are to gain understanding of the brain.

Richard Axel probes the mechanism of perception, from the bottom up and top down. He asks how the brain “creates its own selective pictures of the world” from different sensory input, which exist as “bits of electrical activity, excitable neurons.” Whether for vision, hearing, touch or smell, the brain has receptors that are specific for certain stimuli. Different odors, for example, will activate a different combination of receptors, which will in turn activate specific parts of the brain. When the fruit fly smells banana, one set of neurons fire, and when apple, quite another. The same is true for humans. But the problem of how our brains reconstruct this information in a meaningful way hasn’t been solved. Says Axel, “Perception is only a hypothesis, a best guess that never truly approaches reality.” Since “the brain does not have eyes,” wonders Axel, “who reads the map?” Part 2 of this panel and Q&A can be found here.

Lecture Details

Location: Picower Institute

About the Speakers

Susumu Tonegawa

Director, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
Picower Professor of Biology and Neuroscience, Departments of Biology and Brain and Cognitive Sciences Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (Alumni)
1987 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Susumu Tonegawa has received the highest honors for his work, including the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the Albert and Mary Lasker Award and the Bristol Myers Squibb Prize in Cancer Research. He was awarded his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of California at San Diego and trained at the Salk Institute as a postdoctoral student. In 1981, he was appointed Professor of Biology at MIT and a member of the Center for Cancer Research. He founded the Picower Center for Learning and Memory in 1994.

Sydney Brenner

Distinguished Professor, Salk Institute for Biological Studies
2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Sydney Brenner is one of the past century’s leading pioneers in genetics and molecular biology. Among his many notable discoveries, Brenner established the existence of messenger RNA and demonstrated how the order of amino acids in proteins is determined. He also conducted pioneering work with the roundworm, a model organism now widely used to study genetics.

Brenner received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2002,and the Albert Lasker Medical Research Award in 1971. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society; and a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences. He received his undergraduate education at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, and earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Oxford University.

Richard Axel

University Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University
2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Richard Axel was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2004, with Linda Buck. His laboratory is interested in how sensory information is represented in the brain. He performs imaging experiments in concert with electrophysiologic recordings to determine how this map is represented in higher olfactory centers to allow for the discrimination of odors and appropriate behavioral responses.

He received an A.B. from Columbia University; and an M.D. from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Ira Flatow

Host/Executive Producer, Talk of the Nation: Science Friday

Ira Flatow is also founder and president of TalkingScience, a company dedicated to creating radio, TV and Internet projects that make science “user friendly.” His most recent book is entitled They All Laughed ... From Light Bulbs to Lasers: The Fascinating Stories Behind the Great Inventions That Have Changed Our Lives (HarperCollins, New York).

Flatow's recent honors include: the National Science Board Public Service Award (2005), World Economic Forum Media Fellowship, AAAS Journalism award (2000), the Carl Sagan Award (1999).

About the Host

About the Host

Picower Institute for Learning and Memory

The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT focuses the talents of a diverse array of brain scientists on a single mission: unraveling the mechanisms that drive the quintessentially human capacity to remember and to learn, as well as related functions like perception, attention and consciousness.