- When
- Wednesday, Oct 29, 2025, 3:30 – 4:30 pm
- Event interval
- Single day event
- Campus location
- Kincaid Hall (KIN)
- Campus room
- 102/108
- Accessibility contact
- chairpsy@uw.edu
- Event types
- Lectures/Seminars
- Event sponsors
Department of Psychology
- Description
Neurodiversifying Neuroscience
Matt Smear, Associate Professor, Institute of Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Oregon
Biological variation is an inherent mechanism of life, supporting flexibility and resilience in an unpredictable world. In the brain, rich variation pervades gene expression, circuit development, neural coding, and cognition. Yet neuroscience has tended to idolize universals of function, treating variation as noise to be averaged away. In contrast, neurodiversifying neuroscience treats variation as a source of signal. Drawing on work across multiple domains of neuroscience, I will argue that neurodiversifying perspectives lay bare insights and opportunities hidden by normative traditions.
Faculty host: David Gire
These lectures are made possible by a generous endowment by Professor Allen L. Edwards- Map
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