Neurological Foundation of New Zealand

In the early 1900s, Sigmund Freud, Alois Alzheimer and Harvey Cushing were building their careers in neuroscience. Freud published his groundbreaking work The Interpretation of Dreams, Alzheimer identified Alzheimer’s disease, and Cushing was establishing neurosurgery as a specialty.

A century later, the Society for Neuroscience has more then 38,000 members and a Google search on neuroscience brings up more than nine million hits. Neuroscience has become one of the leading fields of scientific endeavor and almost daily scientific papers are published detailing new findings about the brain and its functions.

Each March, the Neurological Foundation of New Zealand supports Brain Awareness Week, an international effort organized by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives to raise public awareness about this critical research and how it is revealing the brain’s deepest mysteries and helping to find the cures for neurological disorders.

This is the third year the Neurological Foundation of New Zealand been involved but the campaign has been running internationally for more than a decade, and now involves more than 70 other countries.

As part of the week’s activities, the Foundation is launching a poster with tips for brain health for the general public. Neuroscience research is not only advancing our knowledge of the brain, it is revealing ways in which we can maintain our cognitive brain health throughout our lives.

Brain Awareness Week is a great opportunity for you to learn more about brain research and what it is discovering about how the brain works and how to cultivate a healthy brain.

Ponder these questions:
* What do I know about my brain?
* What would I like to know about my brain?
* What am I doing to cultivate and nurture my brain as much as I care for other areas of my health and fitness?

Throughout the week, the Foundation is supporting activities to help increase your knowledge of the brain.

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 most tertiary institutions throughout the country.

Neurological Open Days
The Foundation is supporting two Neurological Open Days in Auckland and Dunedin.
Guest lecturer Professor Andrew Matus will be speaking at both events. He is the University of Auckland’s 2008 Hood Fellow. The New Zealand-born neurobiologist spent 36 years at the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel Switzerland studying the plasticity of brain circuits. He is a Professor at the University of Basel and received a Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa from Stockholm University.

Saturday March 8
Neurological Open Day, St David’s Lecture Theatre Complex, University of Otago, Dunedin
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 neuroscientists and support groups.
Lectures
1pm Assoc Prof Liz Franz FMRI*otago* investigations into neurological disorders: seeing the brain in action
2pm Prof Andrew Matus Movement in the Brain – what molecules tell us about mental life
3pm Assoc Prof Cynthia Darlington What's the buzz? Tinnitus, fact and fiction.
4pm Dr John Reynolds Positive reinforcement or Parkinson’s?
Giving the brain the right signals.

Saturday March 15
Neurological Open Day, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Auckland Grafton Campus, Auckland.

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.

Lectures
10:am Prof Alan Barber, Auckland District Health Board
“Stroke: what is it and how to treat and prevent it”
11:am Prof Peter Thorne Audiology and Physiology, University of Auckland“Hearing and deafness: Making sense of our hearing sense”
12:pm Prof Richard Faull Director of the Neurological Foundation Human Brain Bank, Department of Anatomy, University of Auckland
“The Marvels of the Human Brain”
1pm Professor Michael Corballis Department of Psychology, University of Auckland”The lopsided brain”
2pm Dr Peter Bergin Neurology, Auckland City Hospital, President of New Zealand League Against Epilepsy“Epilepsy - what, why, where and when?”
3pm Prof Andrew Matus Movement in the Brain – what molecules tell us about mental life