Category: Awards
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Brain Star Award Feature: Jessie Muir and Eshaan Sriram Iyer, McGill University
Discovery of differences in encoding threat discrimination in the brain of males and females Learning to predict threat is essential, but equally important—yet often overlooked—is learning about the absence of threat. This study by Drs. Jessie Muir and Eshaan Sriram Iyer, working in the laboratory of Dr. Rosemary Bagot at McGill University, looks at mechanisms
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Brain Star Award Feature: Maira Belen Blasco, Douglas Research Institute, McGill University
A reduction in the number of connexions between brain cells is seen in the early stages of psychosis and is associated with negative symptoms. Schizophrenia is a complex psychiatric disorder typically emerging in adolescence or early adulthood. It is thought to occur because of alteration in the maturation or pruning of connexions between neurons called
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Brain Star Award winner feature: Diego B. Piza, Western University
Better understanding the role of vision in the brain’s representation of space by studying freely moving primates The hippocampus is a structure of the mammalian brain that has been implicated in spatial memory and navigation. Its role has been primarily studied in nocturnal mammals, such as rats, that lack many adaptations for daylight vision. Here,
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Brain Star Award Feature: Andrew Mocle, University of Toronto
Better understanding how ensembles of neurons are recruited in memory formation. The hippocampus is a critical brain region for encoding and recall of episodic memories. The physical trace left in the brain by memory formation is called an ‘engram’, and the process by which new engrams are formed is still unclear. In this work, Andrew
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Brain Star Award Feature: Niklas Brake, McGill University
Better understanding the non-rhythmic components of Electroencephalography (EEG) can lead to better interpretation of brain activity Article citation Brake, N., Duc, F., Rokos, A., Arseneau, F., Shahiri, S., Khadra, A., and Plourde, G. (2024) A neurophysiological basis for aperiodic EEG and the background spectral trend. Nature Communications 15(1514). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-45922-8 Electroencephalography (EEG) has been in use
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Brain Star Award Feature: Caroline Nettekoven, Western University
Development of a functional atlas of the human cerebellum The human cerebellum is a brain region that is activated during many behaviours, including movement, language and cognitive tasks. However, the cerebellum’s contribution to these processes remained poorly understood because of a lack of a comprehensive functional map of this brain region. To address this, Caroline
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Brain Star Award feature: Lizheng Wang, University of Calgary
Uncovering the role of cilia in astrocyte development and function Astrocytes are a type of cells that act as crucial regulators of nearly all aspects of the brain. Different types of astrocytes exist; however, little is known about how different subtypes of astrocytes are created during development to differentially support their local neural circuits. Lizheng
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Brain Star Award feature: Hayley Renee Christine Shanks, Western University
Phase 2a clinical trial reveals a small molecule called LM11A-31 is safe and slows progression of many features of Alzheimer’s Disease Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a debilitating neurodegenerative disorder for which there is no cure. Therapeutics available to the approximately 734,000 Canadians living with AD provide symptom management without slowing disease progression. Hayley Renee Christine
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Brain Star Award feature: Andrea Luppi, McGill University
Understanding how the brain’s network architecture shapes its capacity to transition between different states To support the diversity of human cognitive functions, such as learning, thinking, reasoning, remembering, problem solving, decision making, and attention, brain regions flexibly form and dissolve connections on the fly. How is the brain’s capacity to transition between different functional configurations
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Mark Cembrowski wins the 2025 CAN New Investigator Award for multidisciplinary research that has transformed our understanding of how memory is represented in the brain
The Canadian Association for Neuroscience is proud to announce Dr. Mark Cembrowski will be awarded the 2025 Canadian Association of Neuroscience (CAN) New Investigator Award. Dr. Cembrowski has established himself as an outstanding scientist, collaborator, and mentor, conducting leading-edge research on the cellular and molecular underpinnings of cognition and brain disorders, particularly in memory. Read
