Interviu cu Prof. Charles Nelson, Harvard University, USA, Mai 2006

Dr. Nelson este Profesor in Pediatrie la Harvard Medical School, Presedintele Comitetului Richard David Scott pentru Cercetare in Medicina Pediatrica a Dezvoltarii la Spitalul Copiilor, Boston. Este, deasemenea, directorul pentru cercetare al Centrului de Medicina a Dezvoltarii. Activitatea de cercetare a Dr. Nelson s-a centrat pe trei arii distincte: dezvoltarea si bazele neuronale ale memoriei; dezvoltarea si bazele neuronale ale procesarii fetelor umane, precum si rolul experientelor adverse timpurii, biologice si psihologice, in dezvoltarea creierului si comportamentului.

    Dr. Nelson studiaza atat copiii cu traiectorie tipica de dezvoltare, precum si copiii cu risc pentru tulburari de dezvoltare neuropsihologica. Printre metodele de cercetare folosite, se numara: metode comportamentale, tehnici electrofiziologice (potentialele evocate) si metabolice (tehnicile de Imagistica prin Rezonanta Magnetica – Magnetic Resonance Imaging).  

   Dr. Nelson a adus importante contributii in cadrul a patru domenii de cercetare.  In primul rand, a introdus si promovat utilizarea potentialelor evocate in studiul dezvoltarii cognitive timpurii.  Apoi, a creat modele despre mecanismele prin care experienta influenteaza dezvoltarea sistemelor neuronale implicate in procesarea fetelor umane.   In al treilea rand, a construit un model despre modul in care dezvoltarea creierului duce la aparitia unor modificari in dezvoltarea memoriei. In final, impreuna cu Dr. Nathan Fox si Dr. Charles Zeanah, Dr. Nelson a condus o serie de proiecte de cercetare despre efectele adversitatilor psihosociale timpurii (institutionalizarea) asupra copiilor crescuti in institutiile din Bucuresti, Romania. Rezultatele obtinute constituie un aport semnificativ la cunoasterea stiintifica in domeniu.

 Pentru a afla mai mult despre cercetarea realizata de  Dr. Nelson, urmareste link-urile www.macbrain.org si www.childrenshospital.org/research/babybrain

In continuare va prezentam interviul realizat in pauza simpozionului de catre Mihaela Chraif studenta anul III a Facultatii de Psihologie si Stiintele Educatiei.

APR: Professor Ch. Nelson, it is your first visit in Romania?

Prof. Nelson: I’ve been coming to Romania several times a year since 2001.

APR: Can you tell us about your projects in the memory development and Neural Bases of Face Processing?

Prof. Nelson: So, in memory development I think, what is new is understanding two things: when the memory does first start and second is applying the study of the memory development on the clinical population.

So, for example, many children have learning disabilities, there are not diagnosed until the children get to school, can we identify those children even earlier, even for infancy because they have memory problems?

In face perception work, what is new and exciting is the role of the experience in helping the arias of the brain to become specialized for face processing. So, an example is we know that babies need to see faces for face processes develop normally and what we want to know is that when they do want to see them and what exactly they do want to see, do they need to see the whole face, all the emotions, or just some of the faces, some of the emotions.

APR: What about your future projects in research?

Prof. Nelson: One of the most exciting projects is taking place in Bucharest. For the last six year we’ve been studying a sample of children who were abandoned in six institutions in Bucharest we then placed half of these children in foster care, we also have a third group of children, who live with their families. We’ve been studying brain development and the face processing, and memory, attention. What’s exciting now is that our children are now getting to be 6-7 years old, so we are planning a new brand study hopefully to start in autumn where we will be doing a lot of sophisticated cognitive testing and MRI as well. We’ve met a neuro-radiologist in town and we can actually do very detailing imaging of the brain, so that’s will start probably in autumn and will continue 3-4 years more after this.

APR:  Do you find in Romania a positive environment   for developing mutual relationships in cognitive neuroscience research?

Prof. Nelson: Well, yes. We love coming to Romania, we have a lot of people in research, but what is disappointing in fact is that we haven’t had much contact with the Universities. This is the first time to Cluj. We know Oana Benga for several years and we don’t know anyone at the Bucharest University- Faculty of Psychology. So, that’s what exciting in this first introduction. We established an institute of child development and are now number one and we have to be in connection with the University of Psychology in Bucharest. We employed 7 psychologists in our project, and still we don’t have anyone from the University. So, that’s what we hope to develop in the next few years.

APR:  About U.S.A., What are the latest studies in your research area?

Most of the work we are doing now is the face processing. The reason we are doing that is a big effort in getting involved in autism research and to go there is to understand what causes autism at the genetic level, because we are doing researches at the genetic levels and also at the neurosciences level and the other part is if we can identify children who develop autism since they are babies? We are going to start seeing babies at 3 months who have a big risk to autism and the question is: Can we predict which one has autism and which one no?

APR: How do you see the development tendencies of the cognitive neurosciences researches in Romania?

Prof. Nelson: Oh! Talking to people I understood that in Cluj are a number of people that are using EEG measures and that are a good first step. There is also good a behavioral neuroscience, so that means that the neuroscientist people have to start having collaborations to the cognitive psychologists.

The other imaging tool functional in USA is MRI, and I know that in Bucharest there is one scanner doing function MRI no one studied yet including the people who own it. So we might start doing that and I am hoping a lot of people will get involved. There are 2 scanners in Cluj but they cannot do functional MRI yet, but it is a matter of time only. I think that Romania is right on the coast in starting to do good working in cognitive-neurosciences but they just need to meet each other and to collaborate.

APR: Are you planning future collaboration between Harvard Medical School and the Faculty of Psychology- Bucharest or Cluj?

Prof. Nelson: I hope so. There are two goals: first we can sort a kind of exchange program, so that we have collaborator here and they sometimes come to Boston where we are to learn some things; the second is to settle an exchange program for college undergraduates. Harvard Medical School has one of the biggest international programs and I have the psychology students who love to have the opportunity to come here in Romania. In BucharestBucharest, and now we would like to continue. I had 3 colleges graduated students and 7 undergraduate students who spend time in the lab in Bucharest, and now we would like to continue.