Brain researchers have learned more about the workings of the human brain in the past ten years than they did in the previous century. While their progress increases daily, researchers say that everyday people do not know their brains as well as they should.
The Neuroscience Training Program and the Undergraduate Neuroscience Society are sponsoring National Brain Awareness Week this week at the University of Wisconsin to let Madison students realize just how much their school is contributing to modern brain research.
“We just want to inform people about the research,” said senior Janet Yeh, member of Undergraduate Neuroscience Society. “The brain advances so quickly that you need to be aware.”
Neuroscience is the study of the brain and nervous system’s structure, function and disorders, and it has emerged as a science in only the last few decades.
Although UW currently has neuroscience as a certificate program for those students pursuing a biology major, curriculum officials are making progress toward making the study of the brain its own major.
The Undergraduate Neuroscience Society is a new addition to the Student Organizations at UW within the last year.
“Neuroscience itself is growing pretty quickly and in this organization, you don’t have to be majoring in this to be part of the society — it’s for everyone because it effects all aspects,” said senior Leigh Bornstein, member of the Undergraduate Neuroscience Society.
The Undergraduate Neuroscience Society has less than 20 members but has remained persistent in their attempts at community outreach.
“We have guest speakers, go to middle schools and other community services like the fundraising dance for the Alzheimer’s Foundation,” Bornstein said. The society has plans to visit a local middle school with a human brain and cow eyes for a class to dissect.
The members of the society also have opportunities to watch open brain surgery performed by local neurosurgeons.
During National Brain Awareness Week, people are able to learn about the advancements researchers are making in unraveling the brain, participate in various stimulating activities and demonstrations, and understand the different disorders of the brain and nervous system and their treatments.
Various lecture series will be presented throughout the week explaining the importance of the brain, for example, when it comes to sleep or cell transplantation.
The goal of National Brain Awareness Week is to update humans about their three-pound intricate structure, the brain, which controls who you are and all that you do — from regulating bodily functions to executing complex thoughts and emotions.
“I think it is interesting to have something like this on campus,” said Bethany Scott, a UW sophomore. “I don’t know much about neuroscience. I had no idea there were that many brain diseases out there.”
More than 55 million Americans have a disease or disorder of the brain, which averages to one in every five people. Some of the brain disorders and diseases include alcohol abuse, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, learning disabilities, drug abuse and sleep disorders.
“We want people to know how to take care of their brain,” said Yeh. “Whether it’s promoting helmets or telling them the effects of drugs on the brain.”
