When is Brain Aware­ness Week?

March 12–18, 2007

What Will Happen

The Brain Aware­ness Week is a great oppor­tu­nity to learn more about how the brain func­tions and how to cul­ti­vate a healthy brain. The Dana Foun­da­tion and mul­ti­ple part­ners, such as Sharp­Brains, will lead out­reach events world­wide.

In the blog of the Dana Foun­da­tion we can read today that “To my knowl­edge, the brain is the only organ in the human body that is cel­e­brated and hon­ored for an entire week. This year, 2,000 orga­ni­za­tions in 69 coun­tries will observe Brain Aware­ness Week with activ­i­ties, exhibits and com­pe­ti­tions, most from March 12 through 18.”

SharpBrains-Related Activ­i­ties Dur­ing Brain Aware­ness Week

• Brain Fit­ness Aware­ness: 35 dif­fer­ent Osher Life­long Learn­ing Insti­tutes across the United States will dis­trib­ute our Brain Fit­ness 101 guide and other mate­ri­als to their mem­bers for free.
• Train-The-Trainer Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion: The Osher Life­long Learn­ing Insti­tute net­work will help launch the Sharp­Brains Train-The-Trainer Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion to equip inter­ested instruc­tors across the US with the knowl­edge and cur­ricu­lum to teach our Exer­cis­ing Our Brains class. Class descrip­tion: We are in charge. Neu­ro­sci­en­tists have finally shown that, at any age, our men­tal activ­ity influ­ences the gen­er­a­tion of new neu­rons and their con­nec­tions, with clear guide­lines to fol­low. We can improve our mem­ory, con­cen­tra­tion, decision-making, plan­ning skills, reac­tion time, abil­ity to deal with change. In this class, we will review some of the most spec­tac­u­lar brain research find­ings, dis­cuss the impli­ca­tions from a user-friendly per­spec­tive, and prac­tice work­ing out our brains with a vari­ety of fun, novel and engag­ing activ­i­ties. You have prob­a­bly heard “Use it or lose it”. The lat­est research indi­cates, “Use it and improve it!”
• Exer­cis­ing Our Brains Class at St. James Com­mu­nity Cen­ter in San Fran­cisco, California.
• March 8 Work­shop: The Neu­ro­science of Stress and Stress Man­age­ment. Descrip­tion: Alvaro Fer­nan­dez, Sharp­Brains CEO, will present the lat­est neu­ro­science find­ings about the impact of stress on per­for­mance and intro­duce a vari­ety of tech­niques to help us man­age stress dur­ing Accenture’s Third Annual Inter­na­tional Women’s Day.
• March 14 Work­shop: Sharp Brains at Work. Descrip­tion: Com­pa­nies and employ­ees need to adapt con­stantly. Learn­ing about how the brain works and learns helps ensure smooth change man­age­ment processes. We will lead this work­shop at con­sult­ing firm Origo to help their con­sul­tants and clients thrive.

Other events

• You can find list­ings per coun­try and city of out­reach events world­wide.
• Valerie from UCSF kindly alerted us of an addi­tional event in San Fran­cisco:Free Pub­lic Lec­ture Series, at the Glad­stone Insti­tute of Neu­ro­log­i­cal Dis­ease, on Thurs­day, March 15, 2007. “Towards Bet­ter Treat­ments for Alzheimer’s Dis­ease: An Update on Research Progress and Remain­ing Chal­lenges” pre­sented by Lennart Mucke, MD (Direc­tor, Glad­stone Insti­tute of Neu­ro­log­i­cal Dis­ease and Chair of the Med­ical Sci­en­tific Advi­sory Coun­cil of the Alzheimer’s Asso­ci­a­tion, North­ern California/Northern Nevada)

Other Resources

• Brain Fit­ness 101 Guide
• Exer­cise Your Brain DVD. This one-hour and 20 minute class intro­duces you to the sci­ence of brain fit­ness and includes many engag­ing brain exer­cises you can do on your own or in a group setting.
• The Dana Guide to Brain Health book review
• Top 10 Brain Teasers
• Neu­ro­science Inter­view Series

Please spend a few min­utes over the week­end to ask yourself:

- 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 do care for other areas of my health and fitness?

We hope you engage next week to find, and share, your answers!

Please remem­ber that you can always con­tact us through this blog or through the Con­tact Us form.