Tuesday 24 February 2004 Precongress Course : Neurogenesis and brain repair

s of the 2nd Scientific Conference "Restauración Neurológica 2004" 212 tions of spontaneous locomotor activity in the BaxKO mice. These results suggest that PCD in the adult brain plays a significant role in the regulation of adult neurogenesis and in its absence some aspects of hippocampal-mediated behavior are affected. 24A4 Neuronal differentiation potential of neural stem cells versus embryonic stem cells José-Manuel Baizabal, Mayra Furlán-Magaril, Yuri Ximello, Jesús Santa-Olalla, and Luis Covarrubias Departamento de Génética del Desarrollo y Fisiología Molecular, Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Avenida Universidad 2001, Cuernavaca, Mor. 62210, México Recently, enormous interest in neural stem cells (NSCs) has arisen from both basic and medical points of view. Different NSC populations have been identified, which emerge in time and tissue specific manner during development. On the other hand, distinct diseases associated with reduction in specific neuronal populations affecting humans are urgently requiring of therapeutic procedures that use NSCs. The discovery of neurogenesis in the adult brain opens the possibility to induce specific neuronal regeneration from endogenous NSCs. In this regard, characterization of neurogenesis during development will play a fundamental role for the rational design of those therapeutic procedures. In order to study the in vivo differentiation potential of different NSC populations and the influence of the surrounding environment on NSCspecific differentiation, we have designed a system based on the implantation of NSCs in explant cultures of different developing nervous system regions. Our data indicate that NSCs in culture modify its original differentiation potential and that local factors influence their fate. Particularly, we found that neurosphere-derived cells in natural developing environments do not differentiate markedly into neurons, whereas NSCs derived from embryonic stem cells do. Finding the right NSC population and/or the factors guiding its specific differentiation will be the first step for the development of therapeutic procedures based on activation of NSC differentiation. This work is supported by DGAPA and CONACyT. Precongress course: Assesment and rehabilitation of memory disorders 24B1 Assessment and rehabilitation of memory disorders Hans J. Markowitsch Physiological Psychology, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany Assessment of memory will be described as a theoryguided process which has to rely on knowledge of brain circuits engaged in time-based (shortterm/working memory, long-term memory, anterograde/retrograde amnesia, encoding, storage, retrieval) and contents-based information processing (procedural memory, priming, perceptual, semantic, episodic memory, verbal/non-verbal memory). Furthermore, it will be emphasized that memory should never be assessed in isolation, but has to be embedded in a broad range of additional tests covering personality dimensions, attention and concentration abilities, intelligence, sensory and motor (including language) abilities, etc. The resulting intellectual profile will show preserved abilities and dysfunctions and provides a prerequisite for successful rehabilitation. Concerning rehabilitation, it is again necessary to base this on current theories of memory functioning, for example, on distinctions between implicit and explicit memory training programs (e.g., errorless learning, method of vanishing cues, method of loci, imagery, association learning procedures, internal and external memory strategies in general). Of special importance is that training is generalized to everyday situations and that a proper level of motivation has to accompany the patients' training program. Precongress course: Speech and reading