Mental Health: In Your Mind or in Your Brain?, April 30, 2007
An educational program from Harvard Medical School's Science in the NewsMonday, April 30, 2007, 7:30 p.m., Community Room
Needham Free Public Library, 1139 Highland Avenue, Needham, MA
Free and open to the public
Refreshments
Sponsored by the Friends of the Library
Three graduate students in the Division of Medical Sciences at Harvard University will give short talks about how mental health and illness relate to the body and brain.
Mental Health: In Your Mind or in Your Brain?—Sandra Chow
What is the relationship between the mind and the brain? Using this question as a launching point, the introduction will cover a variety of topics such as how the brain functions and communicates, how we can study mental illness, and the difficulties in studying mental illness. This will provide a good basis for delving deeper into two specific psychiatric disorders: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia—Kelly Dakin
Schizophrenia is a common but widely misunderstood psychiatric disorder. We will begin by discussing how schizophrenia is currently diagnosed by physicians. The majority of this portion of the lecture will be devoted to examining what is known about the biological underpinnings of this mysterious disorder. Treatment options will also be discussed.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder—Tim Cherry
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, is a debilitating anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened. A discussion of this particular mental illness is timely due to recent world events and natural disasters that have exposed people to traumatic situations. We will define PTSD in terms of symptoms and precipitating events. We will also cover what is known about the physiological causes of PTSD and why some individuals develop it while others exposed to similar trauma do not. Lastly, we will discuss current and future exciting possibilities for treatment.
There will be time for questions during the talks. Please be aware that the expertise of the speakers is in biology; they are not physicians and will be unable to give anyone medical advice or speak in detail about the clinical side of these illnesses.
Sandra Chow is from the San Francisco Bay Area. She graduated from MIT with a B.S. in Biology, a minor in Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and a minor in Music. Currently, she is a fourth year graduate student at Harvard Medical School investigating axon (nerve cell) regeneration as applied to spinal cord injury.
Kelly Dakin, a native of New England, attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME. She graduated summa cum laude in 2002 with majors in neuroscience and English. She is now a third year Ph.D. student at Harvard Medical School in the lab of Dr. Bruce Yankner. She is studying how oxidative damage to DNA affects aging and cognition in the human brain.
Tim Cherry hails from Nebraska, graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Human Population Genetics and Linguistics from Cornell University, and is a fifth year graduate student at Harvard Medical School. As a Ph.D. candidate, Tim is investigating the process of how individual nerve cells, or neurons, develop to form a functional adult nervous system in the lab of Dr. Constance Cepko.
Science in the News (SITN)
is a free evening seminar series and educational program aimed at
explaining and discussing current high-profile scientific topics with
members of the general public. Run entirely by graduate students in
Harvard University's
Division of Medical Sciences, SITN was founded seven years ago to
address the inadequate level of scientific literacy within the general
public. Currently, science impacts the lives of Americans more than
ever before as heated debates over stem cells, global warming, dietary
advice, and the bird flu pandemic are all taking prominence in the
headlines. Unfortunately, the level of understanding of important
scientific issues among the public is not sufficient to give them the
power to make informed decisions. Science in the News feels that it is
the responsibility of scientists to act as communicators so that the
public can make intelligent decisions when they encounter science in
their daily lives. SITN assume no prior scientific background in
their lectures, and encourage audience questions and lively
discussion.
For general information about programs sponsored by the Friends of the Library and the schedule of future programs, click here.