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November 16, 2011

Successful Aging, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Alzheimer's Disease

What is the biological basis of “memory” and what does this teach us about healthy aging? Certainly we would all like to minimize those senior moments and also avoid Alzheimer’s Disease. What is the latest research in this area? MIT Prof. Suzanne Corkin will share with us her renowned research into the biological bases of human memory systems, cognitive and neural characteristics of healthy aging, and the natural history and pathophysiology of degenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Building on decades of interdisciplinary research experience, her lab’s experiments integrate cognitive testing with the latest technological analyses, including structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), genotyping, and magnetoencephalography (MEG), which measures extremely weak magnetic fields emitted from the head due to brain activity.

Prof. Corkin’s talk will describe the clinical, neuropathological, and genetic characteristics of aging and how they relate to specific memory processes. She will present information on the observed differences between degenerative disorders and healthy aging and share with us her own personal recommendations for successfully living those later years.

Suzanne Corkin is Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. She received degrees from Smith (BA) and McGill (M.Sc. & Ph.D.) and then joined the staff at MIT in 1964. She has had an illustrious career there and during her many years of research she has received numerous honors including “Neuropsychologist of the Year” in 1998. She is particularly well known for her investigation of the famous amnesiac patient, Henry Molaison, whom she met in 1962 and studied until his death in 2008. She has recently written a book about him that describes his personal story and his groundbreaking contributions to the science of memory. Photo courtesy of MIT.

Date: Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Time: 6:00 Social hour with cash bar
         7:00 Dinner
         8:00 Prof. Corkin

Location: Renaissance Philadelphia Airport Hotel
         500 Stevens Drive, Philadelphia 19113
         Directions (free parking)

Cost: MIT Club Members and their Guests - $25
        Non-Club Members and their Guests - $35
        Young Alums ('02-'11) Club Members - $15
                (one guest permitted at this $15 rate)
        Young Alum ('02-'11) non-members - $25



Prof. Corkin's lab uses brain imaging techniques to study the effects of aging on cognition.

Reservations: via MIT Infinite Connection:
https://alum.mit.edu/smarTrans/register-login.vm?eventID=60041&groupID=158

Club Membership -- Join or Renew on-line:
https://alum.mit.edu/smarTrans/user/PayDues.dyn?groupID=158

For Questions: Lucie Wilkens, e-mail: L.S.Wilkens@alum.mit.edu

Posted by webmaster at 06:00 PM

November 17, 2011

Young Alum Happy Hour -- The Black Sheep Pub

Join other Philadelphia-area MIT alums for drinks and snacks at The Black Sheep Pub. We’ll be there starting at 5:30pm so come on over right after work and meet some other alumni!
 
No signup needed, just stop by when you can! Free snacks, cash bar. Michael Menard, Class of '07, will host this gathering. For more information, you may contact Michael at michael.robert.menard@gmail.com.

Date: Thursday, November 17, 2011
Time: 5:30 to 7:00pm
Location: Black Sheep Pub
               247 South 17th Street, Philadelphia 19103
               (17th & Latimer, between Spruce and Locust)
Phone: 215-545-9473
Black Sheep Pub - Web site
 
Photo courtesy of The Black Sheep Pub

Posted by webmaster at 05:30 PM