Cortical Spreading Depression and Related Phenomena (10frg116)

The Banff International Research Station will host the "Spreading Cortical Depression and Related Phenomena" workshop from August 1st to August 8th, 2010.

Cortical spreading depression (CSD for short) was discovered over 60 years ago by A.A.P. Leao, a Brazilian physiologist doing his doctoral research on epilepsy at Harvard University, Spreading depression of activity in the cerebral cortex, J. Neurophysiol., 7 (1944), pp. 359-390. Cortical spreading depression is characterized by massive changes in ionic Concentrations and slow nonlinear chemical waves, with speeds on the order of mm/min, in the cortex of different brain structures in various experimental animals. In humans, CSD is associated with migraine with aura, where a light scintillation in the visual field propagates, then disappears, and is followed by a sustained headache. To date, CSD remains an enigma, and further detailed experimental and theoretical
investigations are needed to develop a comprehensive picture of the diverse mechanisms involved in producing CSD.

In this workshop, we will bring together a group of researchers in the areas of mathematical modeling and biochemistry as well as experimentalists to address some of the fundamental issues related to CSD. The main objective of the workshop is to discuss recent advances in experimental studies and to build theoretical models based on the fundamental laws of biochemistry and biophysics which are capable of reproducing observed phenomenon and to make predictions that can be verified by further experimental studies.

The Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery (BIRS) is a collaborative Canada-US-Mexico venture that provides an environment for creative interaction as well as the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and methods within the Mathematical Sciences, with related disciplines and with industry. The research station is located at The Banff Centre in Alberta and is supported by Canada's Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the US National Science Foundation (NSF), Alberta's Advanced Education and Technology, and Mexico's Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologa (CONACYT).