The Center for BrainHealth at The University of Texas at Dallas will resume its informative month-long lecture series about the human brain beginning next week with talks about unraveling the mystery of trust, the brain and multi-tasking, reasoning and “rewiring” the brain.  

The series, called “The Brain: An Owner’s Guide,” will consist of four lectures.  The talks will be held on consecutive Tuesdays at the Center for BrainHealth’s Frances and Mildred Goad Building, located at 2200 W. Mockingbird Lane in Dallas, and will run from 7 to 8:15 p.m.  With so many new discoveries about the brain and how it works, the series provides opportunities to learn about current breakthroughs, ask questions and get answers from experts.  The complete schedule is as follows:

  • Feb. 6 — The Decision to Trust:  Clues from Brain Imaging by Dr. Richard King, UT Dallas and UT Southwestern Medical Center.  Choices:  we face them every moment of every day.  What route to drive to work?  What flavor of coffee to drink?  Whom should I marry?  With whom should I do business?  All of these choices involve some level of trust.  In fact, knowing whom you can and cannot trust is one of the most important decision making skills we learn.  Modern brain science has begun to unravel the biological processes involved in one of life’s most critical abilities — developing trust.
  • Feb. 13 — High Performance:  To Multi-task or Not by Dr. Sandra Bond Chapman, UT Dallas.  We are relying more and more on technological advances to work efficiently and do more at the same time.  As a society, we are addicted to multi-tasking.  Does our brain, with practice, get better at doing two things at once — without cost?  Does multi-tasking give us more time to do other things or drain our brain at the end of a long day?
  • Feb. 20 — The Reasoning Mind:  Thinking Outside the Box by Dr. Dan Krawczyk, UT Dallas and UT Southwestern Medical Center.  How does your brain get to the “aha!” in reasoning?  Where do insights come from?  These are some of the questions that brain science is trying to understand.  Reasoning is probably one of the most essential skills to problem solving, practical intelligence and everyday success in life.  Educators and employers are worried that reasoning is going by the wayside. Learn how your brain pieces together information to solve problems and how that function changes with age.
  • Feb. 27 — Ask the Doc:  Can this Brain be Rewired?  by Dr. Mark D’Esposito, University of California, Berkeley.  The final frontier for humanity is to understand how our brains work.  Exciting developments in brain imaging provide a window into the mind and offer new clues to how the brain is wired — and how it rewires.  Everyone has questions about the promise and limitations of brain rewiring.  What’s the hype and what’s the hope?

The cost to attend is $20 per lecture for a single attendee or $30 per couple, and all talks are open to the public and geared to a lay audience.  For more information or reservations, call (214) 883-3404 or jennifer.zientz@utdallas.edu, or register online at www.centerforbrainhealth.org.

About the Center for BrainHealth

The Center for BrainHealth has a unique mission:  to unite brain research and brain therapies in an active partnership to build healthy minds and restore health to injured and diseased minds.  No other institution in America has undertaken this dual mission.  The center, a scientific institute of The University of Texas at Dallas, is dedicated to understanding the brain’s ability to restore or protect healthy function, protect the brain through preventive measures for people of all ages and healing the brain through treatments that regenerate brain function.  For more information about the Center for BrainHealth and its work, please visit the organization’s Web site, www.centerforbrainhealth.org.

About UT Dallas

The University of Texas at Dallas, located at the convergence of Richardson, Plano and Dallas in the heart of the complex of major multinational technology corporations known as the Telecom Corridor, enrolls more than 14,500 students.  The school’s freshman class traditionally stands at the forefront of Texas state universities in terms of average SAT scores.  The university offers a broad assortment of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs.  For additional information about UT Dallas, please visit the university’s Web site at www.utdallas.edu.

Contact Jenni Huffenberger, UT Dallas, (972) 883-4431, jennib@utdallas.edu