Join us for Brain Awareness Day - Thursday 30 April

Eight leading organisations working in the field of brain research are joining Goldsmiths for #BrainAwarenessDay, which aims to increase public awareness of the benefits of brain research.

 

The event has been organised by Dr Ashok Jansari, Lecturer in Cognitive Neuropsychology within the Department of Psychology.

 

Dr Jansari’s research explores different aspects of memory loss, including the phenomenon of long-term amnesia, face recognition and synaesthesia. He regularly appears in the media and has lectured throughout the world, being nominated for a British Academy Charles Darwin Award for communicating science to non-specialist audiences.

 

Goldsmiths’ Department of Psychology has an international reputation for ground-breaking research, having recently been ranked third in the UK for the quality, impact and intensity of its research in a government assessment. Psychology at Goldsmiths achieved a high score of 94% for teaching and 96% overall satisfaction in the 2013 National Student Survey (NSS). 

 

Entry is free but seats should be reserved through Eventbrite.

 

6.30pm - Dr Jansari gives a public lecture exploring the history of our understanding of the brain, from ancient Egypt to contemporary neuropsychology. He will explore our understanding of the devastating consequences of some forms of brain damage, and also preserved abilities following trauma. 

 

7.30pm – Brain awareness market place - displays by organisations that work with individuals with brain-related issues including Headway, SANE and the Encephalitis Society. There will also be a showcase of research from Goldsmiths’ Department of Psychology and interactive demonstrations. 

 

8.30pm – Panel discussion: Living with brain damage. Patients discuss what it means to live with a life-changing brain injury, one of which prevents facial recognition while the other causes a severe form of amnesia. 

 

 

The human brain is the most complex organ in your body, more complex than any piece of technology ever built, and serves as the centre of your nervous system.

 

Here are a few interesting facts about the most fascinating organ in your body:

 

1) The brain is 75% water, 10% proteins, 15% fats and has the consistency of gelatin or tofu 

Most of the water in our brain comes from the blood - a gallon of it moves through the brain every four minutes. The brain is about 60% white matter and 40% grey matter- white matter is the infrastructure of the brain and includes nerve axons and their proactive fats, called myelin. Grey matter is the main composition of neurons and where most of the action happens, being involved in the body’s muscle control and sensory perception. The largest part of your brain is the cerebellum, which makes up 85% of the brain’s weight.

 

2) The human brain is triple the size of other similar sized mammal’s brains

The average brain is 15 centimetres long and weighs between 1.4-1.6kg, (about 2% of our body weight). This is enormous when you compare it to the brain size of similar sized mammals – a chimpanzee’s brain weighs 420g on average. Most of our brain size difference is made up of our more sophisticated regions such as language and problem solving.

 

But does size matter? There have been poor definitive links with overall human brain size and intelligence, and it also depends on how you define intelligence. However, studies on different areas of the brain have yielded interesting results. Studies on London taxi drivers found that they had larger hippocampi (the area of the brain associated with memory and direction). Hippocampi were also found to be smaller in elderly adults who suffered from Alzheimer’s than those who didn’t.

 

3) Your brain makes new connections every time you form a memory

Neuroscientists have found that gaining memories is associated with the growth of the connections (known as synapses) between neurons (nerve cells) in the brain. Your brain consists of about 100 billion neurons, and there are from 1,000 to 10,000 synapses for each neuron. You have trillions of synapses in your brain, all forming a network that allow for your senses and cognition. Changes in the synaptic connections in areas of your brain such as the cerebral cortex and hippocampus are associated with learning of new information.

 

4) Your brain uses 20% of the total oxygen and blood in your body

Fainting due to a drop in blood pressure, and therefore a decrease in oxygen to the brain, is an example of temporary loss of consciousness, and lacking oxygen in the brain for only 5 to 10 minutes can result in permanent brain damage and even death. The brain needs constant blood flow in order to keep up with the heavy metabolic demands of the neurons. 

 

5) Alcohol doesn’t kill brain cells… but it still isn’t good for the brain!

Before you go out and raid your local off-license after reading the first part of this fact, please take caution. While alcohol does not literally kill brain cells when ingested, it instead damages dendrites, which are the ends of nerve cells bringing messages back to the brain. With moderate levels of drinking the damage is largely reversible and not permanent, although a host of neurological issues are associated with chronic alcohol abuse, and alcoholics have been found to be at much higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.