Brain, Basics, and Beyond

Almost a million people in the UK live with some form of dementia. These conditions are often thought of as diseases of the brain- but what if the whole body plays a part? Conditions such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, as well as environmental exposures such as pesticides, can influence the risk of developing some forms of dementia. In this talk, I’ll explore these connections and how the health of your whole body shapes brain health.

Dementia is second most common cause of death, affecting approximately 55 million people worldwide. Despite recent breakthroughs in the development of dementia therapies, their efficacy remains limited. Therefore, alternative approaches are needed. Recently dancing has emerged as plausible strategy to mitigate dementia symptoms. A mounting body of evidence suggests that dance therapy may help to mitigate dementia symptoms, enhance cognition and improve psychological well-being. In my talk I am going to delve into the neuroscience of dancing and how it may benefit dementia-affected individuals as well as the general population

Most children experience stress in early life, but those with multiple stress exposures are at greater risk for developing long-term pain as adults. In addition, children exposed to 4 or more stressors before 18 years old respond poorly to strong opioid painkillers like morphine.

However, why this occurs is not known. In this talk, I will present the case that stressful events in early life shape the opioid system, the body’s natural painkilling system, and makes it less effective at relieving pain. I will also describe how early life stress worsens the effects of morphine in later life.

My talk will be on how exercise can influence neurocognitive factors of health. I will discuss differential tryptophan metabolism in response to skeletal muscle activity, as demonstrated in young cancer patients. Tryptophan is an essential amino acid which is broken down into multiple metabolic routes. Both inflammation and exercise change the enzymes present in the blood which determine how tryptophan is broken down. Tryptophan’s downstream products have differing effects on cognitive and neuronal health and mediate many of the driving causes of depression. Further, exercise alters signalling molecules in the blood which also impact cognition.