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:
Saturday, May 17, San Francisco, CA, 10 am-12 noon
Saint Mary's Cathedral, the Event Center, Patron's Hall
1111 Gough Street (at Geary), San Francisco, 94109
Presenters:
Lennart Mucke, MD, Director, Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease, University of California, San Francisco
Michael P. Stryker, PhD, W.F. Ganong Professor of Physiology, University of California, San Francisco
Moderator:
Annette Norsman, PhD, Director, NRTA: AARP's Educator Community
***This session is free and open to the public. Space is limited and reservations are suggested. Please call toll-free 1 (877) 926-8300.***
Tuesday, June 3, Phoenix, AZ
Grace Inn
Friday, September 5, Washington, DC
Washington Convention Center (part of AARP's "Life @50+" celebration)
Saturday, October 25, New York, NY
Symphony Space
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.