Staying Sharp, an ongoing initiative created by the Dana Alliance in partnership with the NRTA, AARP’s Educator Community, focuses on understanding how the brain works and maximizing brain function and health, particularly in the second half of life. The program includes a series of booklets (found below) and public forums.

These public forums, held in cities across the nation, bring together leading neuroscientists for a dynamic exchange with the audience.  Co-sponsored by the Alliance and the NRTA, they are typically two hours in length, with presentations by a neuroscientist panel and a Q&A session with audience members.

UPCOMING FORUMS
Staying Sharp sessions for 2008 include, among others to be announced:

Friday, September 5, Washington, DC           
Washington Convention Center  (part of AARP's "Life@50+" celebration)

Panelists:
P. Murali Doraiswamy, MD, Division Head, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Duke University
Christopher Edwards, PhD, Medical Director, Biofeedback Laboratory & Pediatric Neuropsychology Service, Duke University
Patrick Griffith, MD, FAAN, Professor and Chair, Department of Neurology, Meharry Medical College
Walter J. Koroshetz, MD, Deputy Director, NINDS, NIH

Moderator:
Stephanie Johnson, PhD, Director of Applied Psychological Science, American Psychological Association

***This session is open to those attending Life @50+*** 

Saturday, October 25, New York, NY              
Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway (at 95th Street)

Panelists:
Bernice Grafstein, PhD, Vincent and Brooke Astor Distinguished Professor in Neuroscience, Weill Cornell Medical College
Charles Mobbs, PhD, Professor, Neuroscience and Geriatrics, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Nikos Scarmeas, MD, MSc, Assistant Professor of Neurology, Columbia University Medical Center

Moderator:
Annette Norsman, PhD, Director of Lifelong Learning, AARP

***This session is free and open to the public. For tickets please call  AARP toll-free at 1 (877) 926-8300***

RECENT FORUMS

San Francisco, May 17, 2008

The 2008 season of Staying Sharp live forums launched with a session in San Francisco at St. Mary’s Cathedral.  A crowd of 800 attended the morning program to hear Dana Alliance member Lennart Mucke, MD (Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease and the University of California, San Francisco) and Michael P. Stryker, PhD (University of California, San Francisco) speak about the brain. Annette Norsman, PhD, director of Lifelong Learning for AARP, moderated the session.

Dr. Stryker opened the discussion with an impressive primer on the brain, for which he received a round of applause from the audience for, in Dr. Norsman’s words, condensing a semester’s worth of brain anatomy and function lessons into a five minute introduction. Dr. Norsman then led the panelists through more than an hour of conversation on healthy changes in the brain with aging, disorders of the brain, the latest in research into neurological diseases, and guidelines for a brain healthy lifestyle. During the section on diseases, Dr. Mucke, whose research work focuses in part on Alzheimer’s disease (AD), stressed that, contrary to popular opinion, AD should not be considered an expected part of normal aging. He encouraged the audience to become educated on the latest research into AD and other diseases, to advocate for research funding, and to join clinical trials to aid in the search for cures.

At the close of the conversation, members of the audience lined up to ask the panelists questions about alcohol use and the brain, how mice brains relate to human brains, the effect of chemotherapy on the brain, the role of genetics in brain health, and many more topics of concern and relevance.

2007 FORUMS

San Diego, November 3, 2007

On Saturday, November 3, an audience of 1,350 attended the Staying Sharp session at the Town & Country resort in San Diego. This was the final session of 2007, and the year’s most highly attended.

Panelists (left to right) Floyd Bloom, M.D. (Scripps Research Institute); Carl Cotman, Ph.D (University of California, Irvine); and Michael Rugg, Ph.D (University of California, Irvine); joined moderator Annette Norsman, Ph.D (director of NRTA: AARP's Educator Community) in a lively conversation spanning brain health topics. A particular focus of the discussion was cutting-edge brain research in disease, dementia, and memory. Following the panel discussion members of the audience lined up for a question and answer period, after which Dr. Bloom signed copies of his recent Dana publication Best of the Brain from Scientific American.

Boston, September 7, 2007

An enthusiastic audience of more than 600 people filled the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center for a Staying Sharp session that was organized as part of “Life@50+,”AARP’s annual national member conference.

(From left) Dennis J. Selkoe, M.D.,  Reisa Sperling, M.D., of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Gary L. Gottlieb, M.D., M.B.A, and David A. Drachman, M.D., joined in a lively conversation led by moderator Annette Norsman, the director of NRTA: AARP's Educator Community.

Opening with a primer on the brain, the discussion touched on many neuroscience topics, including memory loss and aging, brain plasticity and how the older brain learns, potential causes of dementia, the benefit of clinical trials, and causes of depression. The speakers offered four basic guidelines to follow to protect the health of their brains: maintaining physical activity, staying mentally active, remaining socially engaged, and managing cardiovascular risk.

This is the fourth time that a Staying Sharp session has been presented at AARP’s annual event, which this year drew a record crowd of more than 27,000 people. This was the second time Boston had played host to Staying Sharp: More than 700 people attended the session at the Boston/Newton Marriott in Newton, Mass., on February 10. Drs. Drachman and Sperling were panelists at that session as well.

Washington, D.C.,       October 6, 2007

More than 500 people attended a Staying Sharp session at the Lincoln Theatre in the nation's capital. The discussion included a special focus on the treatment of depression and stroke prevention in minority populations.

The panel included (from left) P. Murali Doraiswamy, M.D., head of the Biological Psychiatry Division at Duke University Medical Center; Christopher Edwards, Ph.D, Medical Director of the Biofeedback Laboratory at Duke University; Walter Koroshetz, M.D., Deputy Director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS); Patrick Griffith, M.D., Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurology at Meharry Medical College in Nashville; and discussion moderator Stephanie Johnson, Ph.D, Director of Applied Psychological Science, American Psychological Association. Dr. Johnson was a panelist the April 2007 Staying Sharp session in Tucson.