Professor Harry W. M. Steinbusch
Department of Neuroscience, Maastricht University, The Netherlands

Date: Friday, 13 April 2018
Time: 11:00 a.m.
Venue: Rm. A2-08, 2/F, Mrs Chen Yang Foo Oi Telemedicine Centre
William MW Mong Block, Faculty of Medicine Building
21 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong

Summary:
Despite the role of the brainstem in regulating vital functions, its pathophysiology in neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases has received little attention. Besides serotonergic neurons, the brainstem also contains noradrenalin, dopamine and histamine-producing nuclei. The incidence of disorders like Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, and depression has recently increased exponentially. Mood disorders are strongly related to stress exposure, which is mediated by the hippocampus and other forebrain structures. Damage to these structures may be one way in which stress hormone secretion escapes inhibitory control in depression; in turn, stress decreases neurogenesis and cell survival while antidepressants enhance these processes in experimental animals. A rat dissociation culture model mimicking certain aspects of our autopsy findings was created to investigate underlying mechanisms of neurodegeneration. This presentation reviews the brainstem neuroanatomy and current findings from studies of brainstem involvement in neurodevelopmental (i.e. autism, schizophrenia) and neurodegenerative disorders.

ALL ARE WELCOME