International Brain Awareness Week March 12 - 18

International Brain Awareness Week 2007 - March 12-18

What is International Brain Awareness Week?

Brain Awareness Week is an international effort organized by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives to advance public awareness about the progress and benefits of brain research. This is the second year the Neurological Foundation of New Zealand has participated, but the campaign has been running internationally for more than a decade, and now involves 65 other countries.

Brain Awareness Week aims to raise public awareness about the critical research that is revealing the brain’s deepest mysteries and helping to find the cure to neurological disorders.

Why is neurological research so important?

Neurological disorders affect millions of people worldwide and the burden of these disorders is predicted to grow as these populations age. In just one example we face a looming global epidemic of Alzheimer’s disease.

In 2006 the worldwide prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease was 26.6 million. By 2050, the prevalence will quadruple by which time 1 in 85 persons worldwide – more than 100 million people - will be living with the disease. Modest advances in therapeutic and preventive strategies that lead to even small delays in Alzheimer’s onset and progression can significantly reduce the global burden of the disease.

But this is just one disorder. The number of people with Parkinson’s disease is predicted to double from 4.3 to 9 million people worldwide over the next 25 years. Stroke is predicted to become the second highest cause of death and is the leading cause of disability in New Zealand. Traumatic brain injury is the leading cause of death in young children and 12 per cent of people suffer from migraine.

The severe disability, high risk of brain damage, repeated hospitalizations and the need for ongoing care and rehabilitation makes these diseases expensive and feared.

The only way to find the strategies for treating and curing neurological disorders is through scientific research.

But behind these statistics are real people struggling with crippling symptoms as a result of these disorders. The impact they have on sufferers and their families can be devastating.

Support Brain Awareness Week

Your organization can help support Brain Awareness Week with articles on brain research, disease and brain health. Over the last year New Zealand neuroscientists have made significant discoveries and neurological research is undertaken at tertiary institutions throughout the country. A few examples include:

* Dr Bronwen Connor and her team at the University of Auckland made a significant breakthrough using adult stem cell transplantation that holds promise for the future treatment of Huntington’s disease.

* Dr Lianne Woodward at Canterbury University led a team that developed MRI imaging techniques to detect brain injury in very pre-term babies.

* Professor Richard Faull and his team at the University of Auckland identified a pathway in the brain adult stem cells travel along to repair damaged brain cells.

Brain Awareness Week Events

Tuesday March 13

The finals of the Australian Brain Bee Challenge. University of Auckland.

The Challenge is designed to motivate young people to learn about the brain and inspire them to pursue careers in neuroscience. Eighty secondary students will battle for the title with the winners heading to Australia in July for the Grand Final.

Saturday March 17

Neurological Open Day, University of Auckland

The Neurological Foundation and the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at the University of Auckland are holding a Neurological Awareness Open day at the Faculty’s Grafton campus.

The day will highlight all facets of neurology, including the latest research, clinical advances, education, support services, and brain health advice.

The event will feature lectures from neurologists, neuroscientists and support groups as well as laboratory demonstrations, and runs from 10am to 4pm.

Alzheimers’s Auckland

Alzheimers Auckland will have a stand from Monday 12th March to 16th March in the Main Foyer on level 5 at Auckland Hospital with information on dementia and its support services.

Lectures Series

Throughout March two visiting neuroscientists will be holding a series of lectures about the brain.

The Science and Art of Sleep

Professor Anna Wirz-Justice, whose University training was in NZ, is now a distinguished academic at the University of Basel, Switzerland. Anna is an international authority in the field of human biological rhythms and sleep and their disorders. She has pioneered light therapy and sleep deprivation for depression and elucidated new aspects of the physiology of the pineal hormone melatonin. The repercussions of a sleep deficient society and the health sequelae of shift work and jet lag can be addressed by circadian biology. Light therapy is an important treatment for all kinds of depression, not just seasonal, and melatonin can help visually impaired/blind to have regular sleep-wake cycles and thus a better quality of life. Professor Wirz-Justice will provide

an overview of this exciting area of neuroscience and its growing relevance for architectural design.

Lectures: 7th March: Why do we sleep? 14th March: Our biological clocks – ticking in time for health; 21st March: Lighting up depression; 28th March: Light and architecture: a biologist’s view.

The lecture series will be held in the School of Engineering, Lecture Theatre 1.439, 22 Symonds St each Wednesday in March 6.00pm – 7.00pm.

Lectures By Professors Steven And Hilary Rose

International neuroscientist, Professor Steven Rose, is Emeritus Professor of Biology, Open University in Britain. He is one of the UK's most eminent biologists and well known for his views and knowledge on both science and social issues. His belief in the moral dimension of human life challenges some of the current orthodoxies of evolutionary biology and illustrate that, for him, the scientific will always be personal and political.

Professor Rose will give four public lectures in Auckland (8 March), Wellington (15 March), Christchurch (22 March), and Dunedin (27 March). In Auckland and Dunedin, the lecture will be on neuroscience In Wellington and Christchurch he will present a lecture jointly with his wife Hilary Rose, who is Emerita Professor at the University of Bradford and visiting Research Professor at City University London. Her current research relates to the interface between biotechnological innovation and public policy.

Steven Rose is in New Zealand as a guest of the Navigator Network, an initiative of the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology. His visit has been sponsored by the Bioethics Council.

Date and venues

Auckland

7.30pm Thursday 8 March 2007, Auditorium, Auckland War Memorial Museum

Wellington

6.00pm Thursday 15 March 2007, Paramount Theatre, 25 Courtenay Place

Christchurch

7.30pm Thursday 22 March 2007, Auditorium, Christchurch Art Gallery, cnr Worcester Boulevard and Montreal St

Dunedin

5.30pm Tuesday 27 March 2007, Hutton Theatre, Otago Museum

ENDS

www.neurological.org.nz

The Neurological Foundation of New Zealand is an independent body that raises money to support neurological research and education in New Zealand.

It receives no government assistance, and is almost totally funded by individual New Zealanders, with more than 95 per cent of contributions coming from donations and bequests.

Last year it gave more than $1.5 million in grants for neurological research.

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