Brains are made from neurons, which comprise the electrical elements,
and from glia, which provide a variety of essential cellular services.
Your brain is an "organ" but so is your liver.  What makes your brain
capable of so much more than your liver?  What do neurons look like
and how does their structure affect their function?  What is the
purposes of the thousands of spines that cover the majority of neurons
in your cortex? This talk will attempt to summarize the mechanisms by
which neurons generate electrical impulses how they communicate with
each other to form circuits and how the configuration of these
circuits is dynamically adjusted by neuromodulators and activity.
With this knowledge in hand we can discuss a number of a topics
depending on the interests of the audience.  In a general way what
goes wrong with the brain in Multiple Sclerosis versus Parkinson’s
versus Huntington’s or depression or Rett Syndrome?  How do glia keep
the chemical environment of the brain stable? What is the connection
between neuronal activity, glia and blood flow in the brain? What is
the extra challenge posed by the blood brain barrier for drug
development? What happens in the brain around a stroke in the first
few hours and later to the neurons that aren’t killed by a stroke?