Seminar - NMDA Receptor and Prefrontal Cortex Functions
Date: April 20, 2012
Time: 4:00 PM
Location: Papadakis Integrated Sciences Building, Room: 120
Speaker(s):
Wen-Jun Gao, PhD
Associate Professor
Drexel University College of Medicine
Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy
Details:
The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is critically involved in complex cognitive functions across a wide range of domains, including attention, working memory, long-term memory, reasoning, thinking, and decision making. Therefore, elucidating its rich and diverse functions represents a major and important challenge in neuroscience. The N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) are important for normal prefrontal functions such as working memory, and their dysfunction plays a key role in the pathological processes of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia. We investigated the developmental changes and functions of NMDA receptors in normal prefrontal cortical neurons and in schizophrenia model. Our study suggests that the NR2B-rich synapses in the prefrontal circuitry may be critically implicated in online cognitive computations and plasticity in learning, as well as psychiatric disorders.
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Biosketch:
Dr. Wen-Jun Gao received his Ph.D. from Chinese Academy of Sciences. He did his first postdoctoral training with Dr. Sarah L. Pallas at Georgia State University, then with Drs. Patricia S. Goldman-Rakic and David A. McCormick at Yale University School of Medicine. He is now an assistant professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy at Drexel University College of Medicine.
Directions:
The Papadakis Integrated Sciences Building is located on the northeast corner of 33rd and Chestnut Streets
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