Neurosciences & Mental Health
Head: Dr. Michael Salter
Did You Know?
The International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (IUPHAR) has formulated nomenclature recommendations for ligand-gated ion channels to help standardize classification of the major receptor and ion channel systems in the human genome. Read more
The Neurosciences & Mental Health program (NMH) focuses on the brain and the nervous system in health and disease. Led by Program Head Dr. Michael Salter, our diverse group of researchers includes international leaders in the field of neurosciences and mental health. We investigate both normal development and disorders of the nervous system from a broad range of perspectives in a highly collaborative and interactive environment. The investigators in our program examine the role of genes, proteins and other molecules in brain function to determine the different causes of brain dysfunction and ultimately to develop novel therapies and prevention strategies that substantially improve a child’s quality of life at home, in school and within their environments.
Some current NMH research studies:
- Developmental and pathological neuroplasticity and neuron-glia interactions
- Development of sensory systems and pain
- Cognitive function and dysfunction in model organisms and children
- Inherited and acquired central nervous system disorders in model organisms and children
- Functional neuro-imaging and cognitive neuroscience in children
- Complex neurogenetics disorders, such as, ADHD, autism and learning disabilities
- Design of (EMPOWER®) program to address the core cognitive barriers that prohibit children from becoming successful readers
NMH trainee wins first prize at SSuRe (SickKids Summer Research Program) symposium
Congratulations to Sarah Vinette for taking first prize, and a $300 cash award, for her oral presentation, MEG Studies of Cortical Network Dynamics in Expressive Language Tasks. Supervised by Drs. Elizabeth Pang and Sam Doesburg, Vinette presented her summer research project on language production and the interaction of various regions of the brain. The results showed that communication between the regions was mediated by recurrent bursts of synchrony in the gamma frequency band. Using cross-frequency modulation analyses, her study found that distant brain regions were organized by a theta band modulation. This is the first evidence of task-dependent interregional synchronization during an expressive language task and the first experimental evidence that high frequency connectivity is modulated by low frequency rhythms. This adds to our understanding of how brain regions communicate for language and may have implications for how we communicate pre-surgical language mapping studies.
This one-day symposium on August 4th, 2011 was the conclusion of the SSuRe program. The symposium was the highlight of the 13-week summer program and gave students the opportunity to showcase their work and share their research results through poster and oral presentations. This year 108 students took part in the symposium day, with 101 poster presentations and 7 oral presentations.
The following awards for Outstanding Poster ($100) were also given to NMH trainees:
- Jura Augustinavicius, Supervisor: Dr. Anne-Marie Guerguerian
- Victoria Gu, Supervisor: Dr. Jason Lerch
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