Wasow Scholar Lecture: Nicole Rust on brain research
Nicole Rust
Please join us for...
The Grand Plan for Brain Research
Nicole Rust
Psychology Department, University of Pennsylvania
Thomas A. Wasow Visiting Scholar in Symbolic Systems
Tuesday, December 2 2025
5-6:30pm PT
This is a hybrid event:
- In person: Wu Tsai Neurosciences Building, Gunn Rotunda, Room E241
- By Zoom (no login required): https://stanford.zoom.us/j/99713091022?pwd=b0hna3VRUkFWWHl0TUEwcTRQYktwQT09
- Meeting ID: 997 1309 1022
- Password: 352122
ABSTRACT:
Progress in brain research has been accelerating rapidly for decades, following breakthroughs in biotechnology, computing, and artificial intelligence. But translating discoveries about the brain into treatments and cures for brain and mental disorders remains sporadic. What remains unknown? And how will we figure it out?
In this talk, I will zoom out for a high-level view of progress in brain research and the factors holding it back. I will argue that many of the changes that need to happen are already underway, as researchers shift their thinking about the brain to embrace more of its complexity. Here, researchers are shifting away from thinking of brain disorders as a broken link in a chain that needs repair, toward viewing them more like weather breaking into a storm. While we can be optimistic that this shift will lead us to impactful progress, it will require us to rethink how we approach the brain and mind entirely — including how we think about causality, understanding, and the best ways to influence the brain to health (control).
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