Osher at Dartmouth's Summer Lecture Series: The New Medical Frontier

There is growing recognition that concussions, whether caused by an improvised exploding device in warfare, repeated blows to the head in football or a seemingly innocuous “bell-ringer” can lead to poor cognitive outcomes. Nevertheless, our ability to identify objective changes to the brain after mild concussion remain poor, limiting clinical management, return to play decisions and the development of effective new therapies. Dr. Grafton’s work focuses on the creation of novel MRI scanning methods that are combined with modern mathematical techniques and computer science algorithms. Together, they provide a way to map how brain wiring can be changed with impacts to the head. The approach is also used to understand possible causes for developmental disorders like dyslexia and stuttering.

Scott Grafton, M.D. • Behavioral Neurologist at UC Santa Barbara
Dr. Grafton holds the Bedrosian Coyne Presidential Chair in Neuroscience at University of California, Santa Barbara. He directs a research program in multimodal imaging of the brain to accelerate discovery and diagnosis of the human nervous system. He trained in both neurology and nuclear medicine. He joined UC Santa Barbara in 2006 where he directs the UCSB Brain Imaging Center. He uses fMRI, magnetic stimulation and high density EEG to characterize the neural basis of normal plasticity as well as change after injury using an approach that is grounded in 20 years of clinical experience. He is currently doing research on concussions for the NFL and women’s soccer.

FREE with Dartmouth College ID. $25 at the door.

For more information, vist: http://osher.dartmouth.edu/summer_series/