Pasko Rakic, the Dorys McConnell Duberg Professor and chair of the Department of Neurobiology at the School of Medicine, recently gave the 71st James Arthur Lecture on the "Evolution of Neocortex: Lessons from Embryoarcheology" at the American Museum of Natural History.
Rakic studies the molecular mechanisms that govern cellular events during development of the mammalian brain, including neurogenesis, neuronal migration and synaptogenesis. He and his colleagues have contributed to a greater understanding of the evolutionary growth of the cerebral cortex and the pathogenesis of a host of genetic and acquired abnormalities of this structure in humans.
In his lecture, Rakic proposed that insight into the evolution of the cerebral cortex, the crowning achievement of evolution, could be obtained by studying molecular and cellular events during the embryogenesis of living species.
Rakic is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. He also is past president of the Society for Neuroscience.
Among previous lecturers in this prestigious series, held each spring at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, are Donald Hebb, Roger Sperry , David Hubel, Stephan Gould and Eric Kandel.
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