Mark Bear

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Mark Bear
Alma mater
AwardsNational Academy of Medicine
Scientific career
Institutions

Mark Firman Bear is an American neuroscientist. He is currently the Picower Professor of Neuroscience at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a former Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator;[1] an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences;[2] and a Member of the National Academy of Medicine.[3]

Education and career[edit]

Bear earned a B.Sc. degree from Duke University and received his doctorate in neurobiology at Brown University. As a postdoctoral fellow, he trained with Wolf Singer at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, Germany, and with Leon Cooper at Brown.

Bear was the Sidney A. and Dorothy Doctors Fox Professor at Brown University's Alpert Medical School from 1996 to 2003, when he was appointed Picower Professor of Neuroscience at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. He subsequently served as Director of The Picower Institute from 2007 to 2009. Bear was an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute from 1994 to 2015.

Scientific focus[edit]

Bear's research focuses on understanding developmental plasticity in the visual cortex and experience-dependent synaptic modification in visual cortex and hippocampus. He has described novel forms of procedural learning in the visual system, and investigated synaptic function in models of fragile X syndrome and other autism spectrum disorders.[4][5] His long-standing scientific interest is in how the brain is modified by experience, and his lab is currently focused on applying knowledge of the elementary mechanisms of synaptic plasticity to overcome genetic or environmental adversity.

Selected scientific discoveries[edit]

Bear's work has led to several significant contributions to science, which include:

  • the concept of metaplasticity as a means to maintain network homeostasis [6][7]
  • the molecular basis for amblyopia, a prevalent form of visual impairment, showing that the synaptic weakening is actively triggered by the noisy residual activity in the eye deprived of vision [8][9]
  • the first direct demonstrations that learning induces long-term potentiation, or LTP, in the hippocampus and visual cortex[10][11]
  • formulation of the mGluR theory of fragile X and its experimental validation [12] [13]

Selected publications[edit]

  • Bear, Mark F., Barry W. Connors, and Michael A. Paradiso, eds. Neuroscience. Vol. 2. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2007.
  • Malenka, Robert C., and Mark F. Bear. "LTP and LTD: an embarrassment of riches." Neuron 44.1 (2004): 5-21.
  • Bear, Mark F., Kimberly M. Huber, and Stephen T. Warren. "The mGluR theory of fragile X mental retardation." Trends in neurosciences 27.7 (2004): 370–377.
  • Abraham, Wickliffe C., and Mark F. Bear. "Metaplasticity: the plasticity of synaptic plasticity." Trends in neurosciences 19.4 (1996): 126–130.
  • Bear, Mark F., and Robert C. Malenka. "Synaptic plasticity: LTP and LTD." Current Opinion in Neurobiology 4.3 (1994): 389–399.
  • Dudek, Serena M., and Mark F. Bear. "Homosynaptic long-term depression in area CA1 of hippocampus and effects of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor blockade." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 89.10 (1992): 4363–4367.
  • Bear, Mark F., and Wolf Singer. "Modulation of visual cortical plasticity by acetylcholine and noradrenaline." (1986): 172–176.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Mark F. Bear". HHMI. Retrieved 2022-02-12.
  2. ^ "Mark Firman Bear". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 2022-02-12.
  3. ^ "Five with MIT ties elected to the National Academy of Medicine for 2022". MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 18 October 2022. Retrieved 2022-11-21.
  4. ^ Langreth, Robert. "Mark Bear's Fight To Decode Autism". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-02-12.
  5. ^ "Understanding Autism". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 2022-02-12.
  6. ^ Abraham, W. C.; Bear, M. F. (1996). "Metaplasticity: the plasticity of synaptic plasticity". Trends in Neurosciences. 19 (4): 126–130. doi:10.1016/s0166-2236(96)80018-x. PMID 8658594. S2CID 206027600.
  7. ^ Kirkwood, A.; Rioult, M. C.; Bear, M. F. (1996). "Experience-dependent modification of synaptic plasticity in visual cortex". Nature. 381 (6582): 526–528. Bibcode:1996Natur.381..526K. doi:10.1038/381526a0. PMID 8632826. S2CID 2705694.
  8. ^ Rittenhouse, C. D.; Shouval, H. Z.; Paradiso, M. A.; Bear, M. F. (1999). "Monocular deprivation induces homosynaptic long-term depression in visual cortex". Nature. 397 (6717): 347–350. Bibcode:1999Natur.397..347R. doi:10.1038/16922. PMID 9950426. S2CID 4302032.
  9. ^ Frenkel, Mikhail Y.; Bear, Mark F. (2004). "How monocular deprivation shifts ocular dominance in visual cortex of young mice". Neuron. 44 (6): 917–923. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2004.12.003. PMID 15603735.
  10. ^ Cooke, Sam F.; Bear, Mark F. (1 December 2010). "Visual Experience Induces Long-Term Potentiation in the Primary Visual Cortex". The Journal of Neuroscience. 30 (48): 16304–16313. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4333-10.2010. PMC 3078625. PMID 21123576.
  11. ^ Kaplan, Eitan S.; Cooke, Sam F.; Komorowski, Robert W.; Chubykin, Alexander A.; Thomazeau, Aurore; Khibnik, Lena A.; Gavornik, Jeffrey P.; Bear, Mark F. (2016). "Contrasting roles for parvalbumin-expressing inhibitory neurons in two forms of adult visual cortical plasticity". eLife. 5: e11450. doi:10.7554/eLife.11450. PMC 4786407. PMID 26943618.
  12. ^ Bear, Mark F.; Huber, Kimberly M.; Warren, Stephen T. (2004). "The mGluR theory of fragile X mental retardation". Trends in Neurosciences. 27 (7): 370–377. doi:10.1016/j.tins.2004.04.009. PMID 15219735. S2CID 13421753.
  13. ^ Auerbach, Benjamin D.; Osterweil, Emily K.; Bear, Mark F. (2011-11-23). "Mutations causing syndromic autism define an axis of synaptic pathophysiology". Nature. 480 (7375): 63–68. Bibcode:2011Natur.480...63A. doi:10.1038/nature10658. PMC 3228874. PMID 22113615.

External links[edit]

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