UTD’s Center for BrainHealth Unveils Schedule For Its 4th Annual Lecture Series

RICHARDSON, Texas (Aug. 22, 2005) — The Center for BrainHealth® at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) will kick off its fourth annual lecture series on the inner workings of the human brain on Sept. 13. At a time when scientists and researchers are making fascinating discoveries about the brain, this popular series provides a forum for the public to ask questions that are pertinent to their lives.

The series, called “The Brain: An Owner’s Guide,” will consist of four lectures and address such topics as the adolescent brain; depression, drugs and the brain; brain function in the aging, and new insights into how the brain heals. The talks are cosponsored by the Center for BrainHealth and the Neuroscience Center at Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas. All will be held at Presbyterian’s Fogelson Forum Auditorium, located at 8200 Walnut Hill Lane in Dallas, and will run from 7 to 8:15 p.m. The schedule is as follows:

• Tuesday, Sept. 13 — The Tinderbox in the Teenage Brain: A Developmental Period of Vulnerabilities and Opportunities by Ronald Dahl, M.D., Staunton Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh and director of the Child and Adolescent Sleep/Neurobehavioral Laboratory at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. Adolescence is a time of igniting passions, a period of naturally strong emotions and motivations. New scientific evidence indicates that some of these changes are rooted in the biological processes of adolescent brain maturation, in ways that create unique opportunities and vulnerabilities.

• Tuesday, Sept. 20 — Prozac and the Brain by Graham Emslie, M.D., chief, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and director, the Bob Smith M.D. Center for Research in Pediatric Psychiatry, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. The controversy is heating up over the wisdom of prescribing Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor’s (Prozac-like medications) to children and adolescents with depression. Reports of suicidal behaviors and adverse effects are coming to light, and scientists are asking questions about the true effectiveness of these medications. Is marketing impersonating itself as science? These and other questions will be discussed, as well as how these medications affect the developing brain.

• Tuesday, Oct. 25 — Insights Into Memory Glitches by John Hart, Jr., M.D., associate professor in the Reynolds Department of Geriatrics of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ College of Medicine. Do you wonder why you forget the name of something at a critical time and hope that it will “pop” into your mind before embarrassment arises? These “memory glitches ” occur due to asynchrony in the brain cells that retrieve stored information for features, categories, emotions and labels. When the brain synchronizes the stored information, you feel the name of what you were trying to remember “pop back in,” you hope, just in the nick of time.

• Tuesday, Jan. 24 — Healing the Human Brain: The Next Medical Revolution by Michael Kilgard, Ph.D., associate professor in UTD’s School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences and principal investigator of the university’s Cortical Plasticity Laboratory. How we approach the challenges of neurological and psychiatric disorders to make progress lies in our understanding of science and the potential of brain “rewiring.” The discoveries of penicillin to treat infection and the sequencing of DNA to understand genetics have been successful revolutions in science. Now, on the cusp of the next medical revolution, we have the tools to begin unraveling the mysteries of the brain.

The cost to attend is $25 per lecture, and all talks are open to the public and geared to a lay audience. For more information or reservations, please call (214) 905-3007, or register online at www. centerforbrainhealth.org .

About the Center for BrainHealth

The Center for BrainHealth integrates research, treatment, academic training and community outreach and is one of the few facilities in the United States to provide continued follow-up to enhance and monitor functional recovery in children and adults with brain injury, brain disease and complications of normal aging. Through this innovative approach, the center is discovering commonalities across brain maladies that are yielding similarities in brain repair mechanisms and resulting in new treatments for improving life for patients with brain injuries and diseases. One of the center’s top priorities is achieving healthy mental aging by translating scientific findings into treatment. For more information about the Center for BrainHealth and its work, please visit the organization’s Web site www.centerforbrainhealth.org.

About UTD

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 14,000 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 UTD, please visit the university’s web site at www.utdallas.edu.