The Neuroscience of COVID-19 

We still have a lot to learn about how COVID-19 affects the brain in the short and long term. In this talk and panel discussion, experts from Carnegie Mellon, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Pittsburgh will discuss what we know about the neuroscience of COVID-19 and how their research has changed in response to the pandemic.

4:00 p.m.

The outstanding olfactory system as a sentinel in health and disease
Jay Gottfried, Arthur H. Rubenstein University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania

What can our sense of smell tell us about brain function and dysfunction? In this talk, Gottfried will discuss his work on the human olfactory system and how it links to brain regions at the interface of perception, emotion, memory, and behavior. He will also discuss how impairments in the sense of smell are commonly reported in many different neurodegenerative disorders, often before the emergence of overt symptoms and signs, and will place these findings in context of anosmia (smell loss) in COVID-19.

4:30 p.m. Panel Discussion and Audience Q&A

Barbara Shinn-Cunningham, Moderator

Director, Carnegie Mellon Neuroscience Institute and George A. and Helen Dunham Cowan Professor of Auditory Neuroscience, Carnegie Mellon University

Marlene Behrmann, 

Thomas S. Baker University Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Carnegie Mellon University

Jay Gottfried,

Arthur H. Rubenstein University Professor, University of Pennsylvania

George Wittenberg, 
Professor and Medical Director, University of Pittsburgh

Alfonso Araque, PhD
Professor of Neuroscience
University of Minnesota

Tripartite Synapses: Astrocyte control of synaptic transmission and plasticity