September 19, 2013

Learning expert Merzenich set for Discovery Lecture

Michael Merzenich, Ph.D., author of “Soft-Wired: How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Can Change Your Life,” will deliver the next Flexner Discovery Lecture at 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26, in 208 Light Hall.

Michael Merzenich, Ph.D., author of “Soft-Wired: How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Can Change Your Life,” will deliver the next Flexner Discovery Lecture at 4 p.m. Thursday Sept. 26, in 208 Light Hall.

Michael Merzenich, Ph.D.

Merzenich, professor of Otolaryngology at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, studies the neural bases of learning, recognition and memory, and the origins of functional brain illnesses and disabilities.

His lecture, entitled “Living with a Plastic Brain,” is sponsored by the Medical Scientist Training Program.

A member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, Merzenich develops training strategies for people with learning and movement disabilities. He is chief scientific officer of Posit Science, which provides braining training software and online exercises to help people improve their cognitive performance.

For a complete schedule of the Discovery Lecture series and archived video of previous lectures, go to www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/discoveryseries.