Rochelle Hines, assistant professor in the UNLV Department of Psychology, will speak at an upcoming Virtual Science Café Las Vegas. Her virtual presentation is titled, "Building a Brain, It’s a Big Deal."

Neurodevelopment involves multiple interconnected and intricate cellular processes that are required to ensure typical brain function. Much of this development occurs after birth, including a stage where cells extend processes and form “matching” connections with synaptic partners. With typical brain development this incredible process occurs with high fidelity, with virtually no mistakes in the 125 trillion synapses formed in the cortex. We are now beginning to understand that multiple states of atypical brain development like intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorders are related to subtle and specific alterations in cortical development, paving the way for novel targeted therapies.

The virtual presentation will be presented via Zoom.