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Renowned neuroscientist takes up physiology post at UL med school

A leading neuroscientist has been appointed Professor of Physiology at the new Graduate Entry Medical School (GEMS) at the University of Limerick.

Professor Billy O’Connor, in a lecture that coincided with his appointment, explained what makes the brain work and considered to find explanation “in our heads” for such human states as happiness, creativity and stress.

Professor O’Connor is a leading figure in neuroscience research with almost 30 years experience in research and teaching in medical schools both in Ireland and Sweden and further collaboration with research scientists across 16 countries.

According to a UL press release, he is one of the most cited neuroscientists in the country, with over 200 refereed publications to his name.

Here’s more from his lecture, courtesy of UL:

“Twenty per cent of an individual's energy is dedicated to maintaining a brain that is only 2 per cent of the average bodily weight - about 3lb. More than half of an individual adult's genome (the full complement of human genes) will be dedicated to the continuing process of regulating the brain after birth. If an individual's entire genetic code within all the cells of a single human body were to be stretched out in a single line, it would reach to the moon and back 100 times.”

“Sprouting from each neuron are branches of bushy 'dendrites’ which make contact with immediate, or remote, neighboring neurons. Magnified by an electron microscope, they look like luxuriant, gently swaying kelp. The bafflingly complex combinations of connections produced by the dendrites of the 100 billion neurons in one person's brain are said to exceed the number of particles in the universe.”

Professor O’Connor discussed the split between left and right brain and how we choose specific sides of our brain for a variety of daily tasks. “This choice is shaped throughout our life by such things as education or experience. Most children, before starting education, are proved to be highly creative, which is domain of the right brain. Our education then teaches us mostly left brain skills such as mathematics or language. The statistics show that by the adulthood, only 2 percent of the educated population remains their high creativity.”

“There are also people who have no brain preference and their hemispheres coordinate together when performing a task. They are said to have optimum mental ability. This coordinating ability may be the key to people's higher intelligence. An important recent finding is the mood seems also to follow this asymmetry – with positive moods located in the left hemisphere while negative moods located in the right hemisphere.”

However, experiments on Tibetan Buddhist monks have shown a correlation between transcendental mental states and gamma waves. “According to recent findings on seasoned mediators regular meditation can dramatically increase gamma brain wave patters in the frontal and parietal lobes and this finding may alter our understanding of mental health and provide new opportunities to learn healthy habits to lift our mood and enhance our brains longevity.”

Professor O’Connor explains how our brains can change and adapt to our conditions and challenges; “The most important discovery from neuroscience to date is that the brain is plastic. The brain is constantly re-wiring itself from the inside out depending on how we choose to use it. Each brain is essentially a work-in-progress and recent experiments show that exercise can enhance this process while stress seems to work against it. Neurons change their connections in response to new experiences. This finding offers new therapies for helping stroke victims regain lost movement. We have a constantly changing brain in a constantly changing world.”

Originally from Salthill, Galway, Professor Billy Connor has a Degree in Biochemistry and a Doctorate in Pharmacology from NUIG Galway.

He was awarded an Associate Professorship from the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. The Karolinska Institute is ranked one of the world’s most prestigious biomedical research institutes, which annually award the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine.

O’Connor was more recently leader of Neuroscience Research in the Conway Institute at UCD prior to taking up his current position as Chair and Head of Teaching and Research in Physiology at the Graduate Entry Medical School, University of Limerick.

Posted in Health service news and views on 11 November 2009
Tags: education, neuroscience