Sharp to chart navigation and the brain

Whether we’re doing the familiar, such as taking a child to a music lesson, or trying to locate an obscure bookstore in Greenwich Village, navigation is an incredibly complex task. How do the billions of neurons in our brains communicate with one another to enable us to perform these functions, often with very little thought? What are the basic brain functions involved in moving from here to there?

A highly respected neuroscientist who has a rare ability to explain cutting-edge brain science to lay audiences, Patricia Sharp, psychology, will examine these intriguing questions in the final presentation in this year’s Arts & Sciences Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series. Sharp’s lecture, entitled “East Side, West Side, It’s All About Your Brain,” will take place on Thursday (Feb. 13) at 4 p.m. in the Bowen-Thompson Student Union Theater.

Because she is at the forefront of studying the complex brain processes involved in spatial navigation and learning, Sharp is uniquely qualified to address this topic. Her research has been supported by more than $2 million in funding, principally from the National Institutes of Health, and she has published more than 30 articles and one book that have deepened our understanding of how the brain directs activities that are critical to life. Highly regarded by neuroscientists around the world, she has received the D.G. Marquis Behavioral Neuroscience Award and been selected to serve on the NIH panel that reviews funding proposals on the neurobiology of memory and cognition.

Sharp taught at Yale University and the University of Illinois-Chicago Medical School before joining BGSU’s Department of Psychology and J.P. Scott Center for Neuroscience, Mind, and Behavior in 2001.
A reception in Sharp’s honor will follow the lecture.