Be a part of Brain Awareness Week 2010, March 15–21, the annual campaign to increase public awareness about the progress and benefits of brain research.
BAW IN ASIA: In Saudi Arabia, a symposium on “Advances in Neuroradiology” highlights recent innovations in diagnostic radiological techniques and their application to various neurological disorders. Singapore is targeting high school students through lectures and a special event at a science museum, while Thailand is focusing on parents and teachers with early childhood development projects and activities. In Nepal, a weeklong series of events for elementary and high school students includes lectures, workshops, and a drawing competition. The BAW celebration in India features lab and hospital visits, lectures on an array of topics, school programs, and contests.
Visit the BAW Homepage to see more highlights from today’s BAW events around the globe. To search for BAW events in your community, visit the International Calendar on the BAW Web site.
Interview
Interview with Jerome Kagan
In his new Dana Press book, The Temperamental Thread, developmental psychologist Jerome Kagan draws on decades of research to describe the nature of temperament—the in-born traits that underlie our responses to experience. In this interview, he explains how temperament affects personality, whether it can predict your future, and how it might influence a doctor deciding which medical treatment may work best for you.
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Interview
Interview with Stephan A Mayer, M.D.
Dana grantee Stephan Mayer and his team are pioneering a new method of monitoring brain function in patients with critical neurological injuries. Instead of reacting to secondary damage after it occurs, as is the current standard of care, the team's new technology allows doctors to track what’s happening physiologically in the brain, on a chemical, metabolic, and electrical basis, to try to prevent such damage. This monitoring allows doctors to treat people previously thought to be beyond hope; it is being adopted by hospitals around the world.
Blog
Staying Sharp, aimed at people 50 and over, will hold its first forum of the year on Saturday.
Other recent posts:
News
by Jim Schnabel
After the drug that showed strong positive results in small trial shows none in larger-scale study, researchers consider if method was flawed—or timing.
News
by Carl Sherman
Increases in blood acidity, such as those caused by being in an enclosed space, might activate ion channels that cause fear responses and fear memories, scientists have found.
Column
by Janet Eilber
In her final column for Arts Education in the News, Janet Eilber points towards other arts education online resources.
Event
The International Brain Research Organization Committee on Women in World Neuroscience is sponsoring a workshop in Washington, DC, titled "Stress and the Brain: Effects on Addiction, Cognition and Well Being." This free event will be held on Tuesday, March 23, from 3 to 5:30 pm at the Cosmos Club. Featured speakers include Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Event
Building from the success of last year's Learning, Arts, and the Brain summit, this year’s summit will bring together scientists, educators, and advocates to explore current findings on the topic of attention and student engagement and to frame a research agenda to inform educational practice at school, home, and the community. The May 5 event, sponsored by the Johns Hopkins University, will again be held at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Md. [direct registration link]
News
by Jim Schnabel
New research, including findings in a colony of epilepsy-prone baboons, suggest that unexplained deaths among epileptic people may be initiated by breathing problems.
by Tom Valeo
Bolstered by $30 million in funding, research to describe the “connectome,” a map of the circuits of the brain, is starting to show promising insights.
by Directors of the National Institutes of Health
In this seven-part series, directors of neuroscience-related institutes at the National Institutes of Health take stock of how brain research has progressed in the past 10 years and provide insight into what the next 10 hold in store.
News
by Kayt Sukel
Memantine’s ability to block certain brain receptors may help harness protective pathways that could help stay the devastating effects of Huntington’s disease, suggests new research.
News
by Blayne Jeffries
For the first time in the New York City Brain Bee’s nine-year history, two students from the same high school tied for first place. Both will compete in the National Brain Bee during Brain Awareness Week in March.
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Briefing Paper
Young Athletes May Be More Vulnerable to Mild Brain Injury
by Brenda Patoine
Recent headlines have noted the long-term neurological consequences of head trauma suffered by former NFL players, but the problem of sports concussions is by no means limited to professional athletes. Many brain experts are calling for greater attention to the neural consequences of sports-related concussions in young athletes, whose brains are still developing.
With essay by Joseph T. Coyle, M.D.
Each year, the Progress Report describes the top findings in brain research during the previous year. The 2010 report features in-depth articles on the genetics of psychiatric disorders, deep brain stimulation, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, memory, and neuroprotection, as well as a roundup chapter on other areas of advancement.
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Dana Press Book
Q&A with Walter Bradley
by Aalok Mehta
Walter G. Bradley, author of the new book Treating the Brain: What the Best Doctors Know, explains why finding the right doctor is essential and how the Internet is changing the doctor-patient relationship.
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News
by Kayt Sukel
After 12 years of dispute, the Lancet retracts the 1998 paper that first suggested a link between the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and autism.
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Podcast
On the monthly NeuroPod, Nature’s Kerri Smith reports on the neural basis of our reaction to unfairness, the good side of much-maligned prion proteins, the reason why valium can be addictive, and the efforts to revise a key psychiatry manual.
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Column
by Guy McKhann, M.D.
There has been a significant decline in both the quantity and quality of scientific writing. Here's how to get accurate information.
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Book Excerpt
by Stanislas Dehaene
In this excerpt from Reading in the Brain, French neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene suggests how teachers might draw from scientific advances to help their students learn to read, though he notes that caution is necessary.
by Carl Sherman
Advances in brain imaging and research are helping scientists understand why some music therapies work—and how they might be improved.
Column
by Ralph Steinman, M.D.
A tribute to Dana's late chairman as well as an analysis of the current state of vaccines.
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Partner Site
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s Genes to Cognition (G2C) Online project, sponsored in part by the Dana Foundation, includes an interactive Web site with information on neuroscience topics, especially on cognitive disorders, brain processes and research approaches. The site’s multimedia “maps” illuminate the connections between topics, so you can trace your own path through the site. [off-site link]
Partner site
"Your Brain at Work: Making the Science of Learning and Memory Work for You" is an interactive Web site exploring how learning changes with age, learning better in the workplace and how a brain-healthy lifestyle can support learning throughout life. It's the newest piece in the Dana Alliance's Cognitive Fitness at Work series, developed in partnership with The Conference Board. [off-site link]
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