Dana Foundation Blog

Autism and Parkinson's Awareness Month

April is Autism Awareness Month as well as Parkinson's Awareness Month. Last year, we interviewed Dana Alliance member Barry Gordon, M.D., director of cognitive neurology/neuropsychology at Johns Hopkins University, as well as Dana Alliance member Mahlon DeLong, M.D., a neurology professor at Emory University.

I e-mailed Dr. Gordon this week to get a quick update about autism research. He said there has been incremental progress in both the basic genetic studies and in some of the epidemiologic studies, such as a recent study suggesting a link between prenatal antidepressant use and autism.

DABI Member Involved in Parkinson's Study

Dana Alliance member Suzanne Corkin, Ph.D., of M.I.T., is the lead author of a newly published imaging study, which better shows the progression of Parkinson’s disease in living patients, and could lead to more tailored treatments.

According to yesterday’s New York Times:

[The investigators] worked out a way to combine four different sorts of M.R.I. to get clear pictures of damage to two brain structures in people living with Parkinson’s. In doing so, they have added support to one part of the recent hypothesis, which is that the disease first strikes an area involved in movement and later progresses to a higher part of the brain more involved in memory and attention.

Dr. Corkin was awarded a Dana Foundation grant in the mid-1990s to study the pathophysiology of cognitive decline in Parkinson's disease.

--Ann L. Whitman

Understanding How We Learn: Columbia’s Mind Brain Behavior Initiative

From who we marry to how we invest to the words we type, some of our most important decisions are based on how we process instantaneous feedback.

Daphna Shohamy, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychology and founder and director of The Learning Lab at the Columbia University Mind Brain Behavior Initiative, focused on how the brain supports learning, memory, and decision-making in a lecture hosted by the initiative and sponsored by the Dana Foundation.

Shohamy began by showing two images side-by-side, one freezing terrain and the other, a sun-filled beach. She explained that at age 10, her family moved from Minneapolis to Tel Aviv, and the images depicted both environments. The stark differences between the cultures and her surroundings led her to wonder about the way we learn, and sent her on an academic path that would begin at Tel-Aviv University and include graduate work at Rutgers and Stanford universities before moving to Columbia University five years ago.

Can the Arts Contribute to Healthier Aging?

On September 14^th, The National Academies of Sciences (NAS) hosted the workshop, “Research Gaps and Opportunities for Exploring the Relationship of the Arts to Health and Well-Being in Older Adults,” in collaboration with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and three divisions of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The D.C. workshop featured experts from the health and arts fields, who discussed current arts and aging research, and the need for increased exploration.

NY Neuroscience Events Round-up

Do you enjoy attending talks and lectures about the brain? If you do, then check out our list of upcoming neuroscience events on the Dana homepage. The list is updated regularly, and is focused on New York City-based programs.

On tap for the fall are events that focus on consciousness, Parkinson’s disease, memory, and happiness, which will be hosted by the New York Academy of Sciences, the 92^nd Street Y, and the Rubin Museum. A few of our Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives members are lined up as speakers, including Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel, who is speaking with author and fellow Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel at the Y about “the biological and emotional aspects of the human memory.”

--Ann L. Whitman