BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//132.216.98.100//NONSGML kigkonsult.se iCalcreator 2.20.4// BEGIN:VEVENT UID:20251009T135835EDT-3301m9C7Hn@132.216.98.100 DTSTAMP:20251009T175835Z DESCRIPTION:\nRegister Now\n\nHost: Boris Bernhardt\n\n\nCharting Cortical Axes of Plasticity and Environmental Sensitivity: From Animal Critical Per iods to Human Development\n\nAbstract: The human cerebral cortex exhibits a multi-decade maturational time course during which it retains an innate capacity for environment-driven plasticity. Elucidating how plasticity is refined in the cortex over time is foundational to understanding when the youth brain will be most vulnerable to negative environments—as well as mo st amenable to positive environments capable of supporting healthy develop ment and fostering resiliency. Yet\, it remains unclear precisely how plas ticity unfolds in the child and adolescent brain\, in part due to the chal lenge of studying developmental plasticity in vivo. In this talk\, I will describe how multi-modal MRI can be harnessed to study functional and neur obiological hallmarks of critical period plasticity that have been identif ied in animal research\, including age-related changes in intrinsic activi ty\, thalamocortical connectivity\, and intracortical myelination. I will then demonstrate that developmental refinements in imaging correlates of c ritical period neurobiology progress along a sensorimotor-to-association a xis across cortical regions and a deep-to-superficial axis across cortical layers. Next\, I will provide evidence that the organization of developme ntal plasticity along these cortical axes influences when and where socioe conomic environmental influences become embedded in the brain. The talk wi ll conclude by considering how progress in studying developmental plastici ty may help to inform the type and timing of environmental enrichment inte rventions for youth at risk for psychopathology.\n\nValerie Sydnor\n\nPost doc\, University of Pittsburgh\n\n\n\nValerie Sydnor is a postdoctoral sch olar at the University of Pittsburgh working in the Laboratory of Neurocog nitive Development with Beatriz Luna. Valerie completed her undergraduate degree in Health and Human Biology at Brown University and received her Ph D in Neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania. Her research progra m investigates when during development different areas of the human cortex are most plastic—and therefore most sensitive to environmental exposures that confer either vulnerability or resiliency to psychopathology. Thus fa r in her research career\, Valerie has published 48 peer-reviewed articles (13 first-author) and received continuous external funding to support her work over an 8-year period. Outside of the lab\, Valerie is an avid runne r as well as an avid consumer of fantasy novels\, sunshine\, and donuts.\n DTSTART:20251016T200000Z DTEND:20251016T210000Z LOCATION:de Grandpré Communications Centre\, The Neuro SUMMARY:Special BIC Lecture: Charting Cortical Axes of Plasticity and Envir onmental Sensitivity: From Animal Critical Periods to Human Development URL:/psychology/channels/event/special-bic-lecture-cha rting-cortical-axes-plasticity-and-environmental-sensitivity-animal-critic al-367977 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR