New Lecture Series Launches With Talk On Concepts And The Brain

DURHAM, N.C. -- The 2001-2002 Mind, Brain and Behavior Distinguished Lecture Series will begin Oct. 11 with a lecture by neuroscientist Alex Martin on "Objects, Concepts and the Brain."

Martin, who is at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), will explain his work on the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging in studying neural systems that mediate aspects of memory, language and perception. He also will discuss the organization of conceptual knowledge in the human brain.

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, begins at 5:15 p.m. in Love Auditorium at the Levine Science Research Center on the Duke campus.

Martin received his Ph.D. from the City University of New York, and continued postdoctoral research at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke on the breakdown of language and memory processes in Alzheimer's disease. In 1985, he joined the faculty of the Uniform Services University of the Health Sciences, where he studied cognitive dysfunction associated with HIV infection. In 1990, he moved to the NIMH. Martin is a fellow of the American Psychological Society and the American Psychological Association.

Martin is the first of four cognitive neuroscientists who will lecture on their work at the forefront of human brain research. The series continues Feb. 7, 2002, with Larry Squire from the University of California, San Diego; on April 4 with Jay McClelland from Carnegie Mellon University; and on April 25 with Michael Gazzaniga from Dartmouth College.

The lecture series is sponsored by the Duke Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. The center is dedicated to theoretical and experimental work on understanding the human mind and brain from an interdisciplinary perspective that includes work in psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, engineering, anthropology, linguistics, sociology, neurology, psychiatry and related disciplines.