High school students visit for Brain Awareness Week
Predoctoral fellows Andy Burrion (left) and Jennifer Stamps (center) deliver a primer on the human brain to Windermere Preparatory School students (from left) Dana Cazacu, Maddie Hanley, Nikki Duggal, Emma Farshi, Dania Saleem, Scott Stratman, Katie Schroeder, Sumaya Charani and Katie Dyer for Brain Awareness Week. (Photo by John Pastor/University of Florida)
Nothing built by human hands compares with the brain 鈥� the most complex living structure in the universe.
More than 60 high school students from Orlando received a personal introduction to brain anatomy, the effects of drugs on brain connections and related subjects during a visit today (March 15) to the Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute for Brain Awareness Week.
鈥淵ou are going to learn about synaptic transmission, brain structures and a variety of things,鈥� said Ethan Anderson, a student in the College of Medicine鈥檚 Interdisciplinary Program in Biomedical Sciences and secretary of the North Central Florida Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience, who greeted students from Lake Highland Preparatory School and Windermere Preparatory School. 鈥淚 ask that you be respectful; you will see human brains. People have given us a very great gift, and that鈥檚 important to remember.鈥�
With more cells than a galaxy full of stars, the brain regulates our heartbeats, eye blinks and temperature; it enables us to understand the world, to walk and sleep, to create and feel emotions 鈥� it endows us with the qualities that make us human.
But it is not invulnerable to disease or age-related memory loss. That鈥檚 where the researchers, clinicians and students at the MBI step forward. In addition to receiving high school students on Tuesday, eight teams of graduate students and postdoctoral associates will visit four area middle schools and one high school this week as part of the Brain Awareness Week global campaign to increase public awareness about the progress and benefits of brain research.
On Thursday (March 17), the four chairs of the University of Florida鈥檚 鈥渘euromedicine鈥� departments 鈥� neurology, neuroscience, neurosurgery and psychiatry 鈥� will discuss the latest research and medical initiatives.
MBI Executive Director and Neurology Chairman Tetsuo Ashizawa, M.D., Neurosurgery Chairman William Friedman, M.D., Ph.D., Neuroscience Chair Lucia Notterpek, Ph.D., and Psychiatry Chairman Mark Gold, M.D., will deliver the neuromedicine updates from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the MBI鈥檚 DeWeese Auditorium.
鈥淲hen I talk to chairs of neuroscience departments at other universities I find they are amazed at the collaborative atmosphere here,鈥� Notterpek said. 鈥淚t is exceptional for the heads of neurosurgery, psychiatry, neurology and neuroscience to regularly talk to each other, share space and work together to recruit new faculty. It represents a new model for medicine 鈥攄epartments partnering to identify and respond to health-care needs.鈥�
Every March, Brain Awareness Week unites the efforts of organizations worldwide in a weeklong celebration of the brain. Spearheaded by the Dana Foundation, a private philanthropic organization that supports brain research, the campaign is aimed at increasing public awareness about the progress and benefits of brain research.