Harnessing the brain’s capacity to adapt and regenerate

Aug 22 2011

Understanding the brain’s capacity to adjust to physical and mental trauma and injury – and how to exploit this therapeutically to help patients – is the focus of a major international symposium at the University of New South Wales next month (8 Sept).

UNSW Brain Sciences’ Brain plasticity – the Adaptable Brain brings together experts from the United States and Australia to present the latest evidence in the field.

“Neuroplasticity is now one of the most exciting areas of neuroscience internationally and research is telling us that the brain has much more capacity for regeneration and adaptation than we once thought,” says symposium convener and head of UNSW’s School of Psychiatry, Professor Phil Mitchell.

“This means there’s enormous potential for us to one day be able to prevent and treat major problems like dementia and other serious brain disorders such as schizophrenia.”

The symposium will be opened by NSW Minister for Health and Medical Research, Jillian Skinner.

Keynote speaker is Dr Henriette van Praag, the head of the Neuroplasticity and Behaviour Unit at the National Institute on Aging in the United States, and a world expert on the effects of physical exercise on the brain.

Other speakers: Professor Cyndi Shannon Weickert (UNSW/NeurA); Professor Ian Hickie (USyd); Professor Peter Schofield (NeurA); Professor Paul Fitzgerald (Monash); Professor Andrew Lawrence (Howard Florey Institute); Dr Michael Valenzuela (UNSW), Prof Margaret Morris (UNSW); Prof Ehsan Arabzadeh (UNSW).

For the program and full speakers’ list go to http://www.brainsciences.unsw.edu.au