Brain Awareness Event – 16th March

ByEditor

Brain Awareness Event – 16th March

As part of International Brain Awareness Week, Dr Ashok Jansari will be hosting a Brain Awareness Day on Wednesday 16th March, 6-9pm at the School of Psychology at UEL’s Stratford campus in East London.

The event will start with a public lecture entitled ‘The Life of Brian (the Brain)’ giving a tour of the history of  our understanding of the brain. This will begin with the first written documentation of the word ‘brain’ in a 3000 year old Egyptian papyrus and move towards  how modern neuropsychologists are beginning to unravel the mysteries of an organ that is more complex than the most advanced computer known to man.

By using examples from his own work, Dr Jansari will demonstrate how we can understand the devastating consequences of some forms of brain damage but also about the preserved abilities following trauma. This information can then be used to help understand how the healthy brain functions and then this information can be used to develop rehabilitation to help the lives of the patients. For example, David cannot recognise any faces (including his wife’s), but can tell you what whether someone is happy or sad and whose vision is good enough to look at a football shirt and tell you which premiership team it belongs to. Then there is Nicola, who is so profoundly amnesic that she makes the hero of the classic film Memento look like he has a good memory! However, by capitalising on unconscious forms of memory, Dr Jansari’s team taught Nicola to use a complex Palm Top electronic device to remember to take her medication  – despite this remarkable learning, each time she saw the Palm Top, she claimed never to have used it before.

After the public lecture, there will be a reception between 7 and 8pm with information displays by organisations that work with individuals with brain-related issues (e.g. Saneline and the Encephalitis Society), posters about research at the School of Psychology and even models of the brain that the audience can take apart. The evening will conclude with Dr Jansari chairing a panel discussion about ‘living with brain damage’ where two of his
research patients will discuss both what it means to live with this terrible life-changing event but also that it certainly is not the end of the world…..

For more information, please email Dr Jansari at  a.jansari@uel.ac.uk or Brian Sladen at briansladen@nhs.net