NCtalks with Michael Merzenich: understanding brain plasticity – Part 2


In this NCtalks podcast we talk to the renowned neuroscientist Michael Merzenich, a professor emeritus of the University of California, San Francisco (USA), following his recent receipt of the Kavli Prize for Neuroscience.

Dr. Merzenich earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Portland (OR, USA) and his PhD at Johns Hopkins (MD, USA). He then completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (WI, USA) before becoming a professor at the University of California, San Francisco, where he retired as Francis A. Sooy Professor and Co-Director of the Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience in 2007. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1999 and the Institute of Medicine in 2008.

Dr Merzenich has been a leader in the field of brain plasticity for the past few decades, defining the critical period of child development and adult plasticity, as well as being instrumental in the development of multiple brain training programs. In this podcast Merzenich tells us more about the history and progression of the field of brain plasticity and we discuss the clinical implications for brain training programs.

View Part 1 of this interview here

The opinions expressed in this interview are those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the views of Neurology Central or Future Science Group