BE good to your brain cells this weekend, Saturday is brain day. Wellington marks brain awareness week with a day of lectures from leading neuroscientists and clinical neurology experts.
Dr Stuart Mossman, clinical neurologist, capital and coast district health board, will provide insight into an unusual neurological syndrome – transient global amnesia (or TGA). TGA occurs to one person in 100,000, and symptoms include sudden and temporary short-term memory loss, where the sufferer cannot recall recent events or retain new information. Thankfully, symptoms usually disappear within 24 hours.
Dr Mossman says he chose TGA as a lecture subject because, “It’s a fascinating condition, and I want to stimulate people’s interest in the brain.”
“We’re biological beings and we’re prone to breaking down in the same way a car does. But there are ways you can keep your brain healthy,” he says.
Dr Cathy Stinear, senior lecturer and clinical neuroscientist at the University of Auckland’s centre for brain research, says a few simple things can help prevent you from becoming one in six people to have a stroke in their lifetime.
“Don’t smoke ever. Eat sensibly and drink in moderation. Have your blood pressure and cholesterol checked regularly and if they’re high, do exactly as your doctor says,” she says.
Dr Stinear will talk about stroke recovery, based on her research, which was recently published in Lancet Neurology.
“What we’re interested in is priming the brain, which means activating the stroke side of the brain before therapy,” she says.
Priming techniques involve medications, non-invasive brain stimulation, sensory feedback and movement patterns.
“Some things have to be managed by a therapist in a hospital or rehab setting, but others can be used in the patient’s own home with the support of family. A lot of people have the capacity to keep improving even years after the stroke, but because of the way the health system works, they will have to do so largely on their own,” she says.
Dr Stinear’s lecture will focus on ‘plasticity’, or the brain’s ability to compensate for damaged areas, which she says is ‘remarkably good’.
“Brain day is a wonderful opportunity to use understanding to get rid of stigma attached to brain disorders, and to learn something about the magic that happens between our ears.”
Brain Day Wellington, Rutherford House, Pipitea Campus, Victoria University of Wellington, 11-4pm, March 19.