3 Thinking ahead: Immunotherapy in the brain 4 Plenary lecture: The official newspaper Paul Harrison discusses of ECNP Congress 2012 a combined approach to schizophrenia therapy Issue 2 6 Blossoming future for mental health with ECNP Monday disruptive innovation 15 October 12 The neural mechanisms of DAILY NEWS gambling are put to the test 2012 Keynote lecture starts congress with a bang neuronal death or by inducing a greater proportion of stem cells to reenter mito- sis. Although this demonstrated that this process could be trivially achieved, it is not sufficient simply to have an increased number of brain cells; they need to be organised in a more sophisticated man- ner as well. Professor Blakemore continued: “How could the enlargement of the brain make it more useful? What kind of processes would the brain have to go through in order to be better, simply as a result of being larger? If you look at the way in which the brain changed during the mammalian evolution by extant species representative of different points in the mammalian line, what we see is that the sensory areas – the audio, visual, somatic sensory areas – maintain their relative positions throughout evolution, but they occupy a relatively smaller pro- portion of the cortex in more advanced species. It’s not simply that the brain has uniformly increased in size, but it is that it has introduced more space in between the primary sensory areas and the motor areas. That has generated space for more Colin Blakemore specialised areas and we now know that the whole of the cerebral cortex is a Continuing with an interesting mosaic of specialised areas.” The Keynote Session on Saturday evening was filled perspective of the evolutionary under- How this was achieved throughout with awards, speeches and live entertainment that pinnings of the growth of the hominid the course of mammalian evolution is served as a befitting tribute to the opening of the brain, Professor Blakemore said: “I difficult to ascertain. Using the exam- th think that many of the problems we ple of language, Professor Blakemore landmark 25 ECNP Congress. Of course, a crowning suffer, particularly neurological and proposed: “It is interesting that the moment of the session was the keynote lecture, ‘The psychiatric disorder, are a consequence major language areas occupying the plastic brain’, delivered by prestigious and renowned of two things: our brains are too big, association cortex are strategically placed and we live too long. Having a big brain in between the primary sensory areas – expert Colin Blakemore (Department of Physiology, obviously has its advantages, and these auditory and visual – and the part of the Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, UK). advantages were spotted during the motor cortex responsible for the tongue evolutionary process. The brain size of and the laryngeal movements. It is as hough likely needing no intro- of neurons is progressive. The mamma- hominids has increased enormously in if these areas might have been created duction to most in attendance, lian nervous system can never change size, particularly about 200,000 years because of the additional availability of T Professor Blakemore has been, and reorganise, can never regenerate, ago with a rapid doubling in cerebral brain space and their strategic location in and continues to be, involved in ground- can never adapt from damage, and volume. relation to existing functions. breaking developments in our under- that no neurons are created after birth: “The standard argument is a Darwin- “And I’d like to suggest that this standing of fundamental phenomena in all of these ideas have gone, and there ian one: that there must have been some might have been the way in which much the brain. During his keynote lecture he has been a revolutionary change in our kind of advantage for a very large brain, of the modular organisation of the led us on a journey through the history concept of the brain. which led to the conservation of these cerebral cortex developed, simply being of brain experimentation and of the “We see it now as the most dynamic, changes. These changes of course carry in the right place at the right time, with mammalian brain itself. adaptable and plastic organ in the body disadvantages: the brain is a metaboli- sufficient extra brain to utilise the normal History has a curious way of slipping and indeed so many of its functions cally hungry organ, it is consuming about connectivity and plasticity to begin the from our consciousness, and Professor depend on that plasticity. The sorts of 20% of the oxygen in your blood at the process of evolving new functional Blakemore reminded us of just how far problems that we are interested in – be- moment. So there is a big disadvantage structures. There are so many examples we had come over the past several dec- havioural disorders – are probably due to in having a big brain, but there must of specialisation, particularly in visual ades: “Certainly when I was a student, I aberrations in plasticity in the brain, and have been compensating advantages.” parts of the brain. Our cortex has come learned that every neuron in the brain is paradoxically the plasticity of the brain It has been shown in mice that it up with 35 specialised areas responsible created before birth, that many of them might therefore hold a route to new is possible to double the size of the for ever more refined processing of the die shortly after birth and that the loss treatments for many disorders.” brain, either by reducing developmental Continued on page 2 2 15 October 2012 ECNP Daily News Monday www.ecnp.eu Keynote lecture cortex. He said: “Changes like this are Keynote lecture starts congress with a bang being demonstrated even after a few days of practice.” Continued from page 1 He concluded his keynote presen- visual image. And that seems to have tation by marking out the potential been a hallmark of human sensory therapeutic uses of these fascinating evolution: that we just found new ways discoveries, saying: “Cortical plasticity of reprocessing, again and again, the continues throughout life, but it is not same information that enters the primary necessarily always adaptive. However, visual cortex.” we know that during early development, Professor Blakemore tested the role of the rapid plasticity of sensory areas can plasticity as a critical factor in the evolu- actually make the brain vulnerable. tion of cortical growth in mammals by Children who have unequal stimulation addressing whether that intrinsic process of their two eyes can suffer in cortical would be plastic enough to be able to organisation by losing input from both utilise increases in cortex size that have eyes. Language disorders, which develop occurred during evolution. With evidence from insufficient exposure to language, of cortical reorganisation following the seem to be due to the fact that there is removal of half of one brain hemisphere a language-sensitive period – perhaps up during a critical developmental phase in to seven or eight years of age. experimental animals, it is clear that this “If it is not utilised, the cortex can may well be the case, as he explained: never fully develop language function. “If this sort of adaptive relationship is Dyslexia too: perhaps some forms could utilised in normal development, it could be explained by disorders in the plasticity easily have been used in the evolutionary that lead to the formation of structures process, because additional brain would that come to acquire the computa- automatically be filled by this adap- tional capacity tive process of projection. If there were for reading. And projections, then that pattern of connec- “Perhaps utilising plasticity, also in learning: tions between neurons might turn out to developing methods IQ is dependent be useful to the individual. to capture and reapply on stimulation: as “After birth, very different forms of much as a 30 IQ plasticity begin to happen. There are plasticity in the brain point difference two main phases: an early stage, usually might be a route to can be produced in called the sensitive period (although children who have there are many, many sensitive periods) ment; kittens that were only exposed to different forms it prevention or therapy.” been very socially in which sensory areas of the brain seem vertical lines had denser, more active and may take: “There deprived in early Colin Blakemore (Department of to be programmed by their own sensory larger areas relating to those vertical sen- are now so many life compared with input. It starts at birth (even before birth sory phenomena than areas devoted to examples of the Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, normal children. in the case of the auditory system) and other orientations. Professor Blakemore ways in which the University of Oxford, UK) Perhaps in condi- it’s completed quite quickly – in weeks in described the significance of these find- adult cortex can tions like PTSD and monkeys and perhaps a year in humans, ings with regard to the classic dichotomy change dramatically as a result of learn- reactive depression, because there is very with sensory areas learning about the of genes and environment, saying: “So ing – of attentive learning of particular good evidence of a gene-environment statistics of the outside world, and the cortex is adapting itself for its own tasks.” A dramatic demonstration of this interaction in individual depressive changing their properties – their recep- world. This is a sophisticated physiologi- was the representation of the somatic episodes, these may be examples of tive field characteristics to match the cal property; sensory cortex plasticity gone wrong. outside world.” it cannot be and the neigh- “If this is the case, perhaps utilis- Further experiments in sensory depri- accidental.