Brain diseases are often sources of shame for people who have them. Understanding that such diseases are bodily afflictions is key to finding a better cure
Mriganka Sur is the Paul E. Newton Professor of Neuroscience, Head, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and Director of the Simons Initiative on Autism and the Brain at MIT. He studies the organisation, development and plasticity of the cerebral cortex of the brain using experimental and theoretical approaches. He has discovered fundamental principles by which networks of the cerebral cortex are wired during development and change dynamically during learning. Recently, his group demonstrated novel mechanisms underlying disorders of brain development, and proposed innovative strategies for treating such disorders.
I have been fascinated by the human brain from my student days, even though all my training has been in electrical engineering — first during my undergraduate degree from IIT Kanpur in 1974 and then during graduate studies in the US. Everything starts with the brain: Our ways of thinking, our understanding of the world, and for that matter, our ways of changing the world. So understanding the brain will not only help us treat brain disorders and build intelligent machines but also enable us to grasp and change the human condition.
(This story appears in the 04 June, 2010 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)