Online ticket sales will end at 5 PM on May 1. Please come in person Thursday, May 3 to purchase your ticket.

The Center for BrainHealth at The University of Texas at Dallas and its partners at the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at The University of California, Berkeley, present the twelfth annual Reprogramming the Brain to Health Symposium. The Symposium brings together the most distinguished brain scientists to share and learn up-to-the-minute breakthroughs in brain research.

The goal of this symposium is to discuss and offer the first roadmap for a Brain Health vital multidimensional index derived from the diverse work of leading brain health experts.

The annual Symposium is designed to engage cognitive scientists, neuroscientists, physicians, psychologists, rehabilitation specialists, researchers, educators and students. Abstract submissions will be accepted for poster presentations during the 2018 Symposium. $500 awards will be given to each of the top five student poster submissions.

The Keynote Address and The Charles L. Branch BrainHealth Award recipient for 2018 is

Pasko Rakic, MD, PhD
Yale School of Medicine
Department of Neuroscience

Dr. Rakic was the founder and served as Chairman of the Department of Neurobiology at Yale for 37 years, and was founder and Director of the Kavli Institute for Neuroscience for 10 years. He is best known for explaining the mechanisms involved in the development of the cerebral cortex. Dr. Rakic is notable for his studies of the development and evolution of the brain. More specifically, he has discovered and formulated basic cellular and molecular mechanisms of proliferation and migration of neurons in the cerebral cortex, the brain’s outer layer, which plays a key role in cognition and human exceptional mental capacities.

The Symposium will also feature the following agenda/speakers:

7:30 - 8:15 AM - Registration and Complimentary Breakfast

8:15 AM - Welcome

Session 1 | Neural Networks and Cognition

8:30 AM
Elisabeth Wilde, PhD
Baylor College of Medicine

9:15 AM
Gagan Wig, PhD
Center for Vital Longevity
The University of Texas at Dallas

10-10:30 AM - Coffee Break / Poster Session 1

10:30 AM
Randall Engle, PhD
Georgia Institute of Technology

11:15 AM
Paul Burgess, PhD
University College London

Lunch Break* & Panel Discussion | Brain Health Metrics

Noon - 1:30 PM

Sandra Bond Chapman, PhD – Center for BrainHealth
Mark D’Esposito, MD – University of California, Berkeley
Geoffrey Ling, MD, PhD - Johns Hopkins University
Ian Robertson, PhD – Center for BrainHealth
Henry W. Mahncke, PhD - Posit Science Corporation
*Boxed lunches can be reserved by selecting the Boxed Lunch Ticket option when registering.

Session 2 | Neurotransmitters and Cognitive Reserve

1:30 PM
Gary Aston-Jones, PhD
Rutgers’ Brain Health Institute

2:15 PM
Yaakov Stern, PhD
Columbia University Medical Center

3 - 3:30 PM Coffee Break / Poster Session 2

Session 3 | Keynote Speaker

3:30 PM
Pasko Rakic, MD, PhD
Yale School of Medicine
Department of Neuroscience

4:30 - 5 PM Poster Awards Announced