Our Restless Brain – Exploring the brain’s dark energy

10.06.2021

Throughout the Zoom platform, it will be held online on June 17 at 5 pm, the Distinguished Lecture of professor Marcus E. Raichle “Our Restless Brain – Exploring the brain’s dark energy”.

The core idea in this talk is that brain-wide, ongoing activity is essential for brain function and behavior. This activity accounts for 20% of the energy consumption of an adult human even though the brain contributes only 2% to the weight of the body. Brain activity associated with task performance is associated with surprisingly small regional changes in brain energy consumption. These changes are so small that they have no effect on overall brain energy consumption. The emerging challenge for neuroscience is to understand the contribution this very high-energy consumption makes to brain function. What has been revealed over the past several decades as imaging of not only humans but also other mammals as well as flies and worms is a remarkable brain-wide, functional organization within this ongoing activity.

The objective of the talk is to provide an overview of this rapidly expanding body of work emerging from laboratories worldwide.

Marcus E. Raichle, a neurologist, is the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Distinguished Professor in Medicine with joint appointments in Radiology, Neurology, Neurobiology, Psychology and Biomedical Engineering at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, USA.