Challenging Minds

Traumatic Brain Injuries are a prevalent issue worldwide, with an estimated 50% of the population thought to be afflicted at least once in their lifetime, but we still rely on subjective and costly methods to make a diagnosis, and cannot provide a patient with treatment, only symptomatic relief. Our research aims to overcome this barrier through the development of a portable intracranial Raman spectroscopy brain probe; we want to implement a step into an existing surgical procedure to be able to detect and treat precise biochemical changes in the brain’s environment following severe injury.

The number of people impacted by dementia is rising. This is in part because medical treatments are improving and we are living longer. However, dementia is not an inevitable consequence of ageing and 40% of all cases can be prevented by making healthy lifestyle choices. Across our lifespan the human brain consumes an enormous amount of energy to function and disrupting the supply of fuel to the brain can have significant consequences. This talk will explore the connections between the brain energy use, our risk of dementia and how we can act to maintain a healthy brain.

Visual attention helps people to navigate the world. It involves the ability to focus on relevant information and ignore irrelevant information. This is important for example, when looking for your keys, finding mozzarella in the store, or driving in traffic. Anything that involves a lot of information requires selective attention. Interactions with the environment typically rely on all senses. In case of hearing loss when the contribution of the auditory domain is reduced, visual input becomes more important. Hearing affects how we pay attention to the visual world.