enrichment

What a bet­ter open­ing for our Jan­u­ary Sharp­Brains Sum­mit than to have Mar­i­an C. Dia­mond, one of the pio­neers of neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty research since the 1960s, intro­duce us to the human brain, its anato­my and func­tion, and impli­ca­tions from neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty for brain health and per­for­mance at any age.

Mar­i­an C. Dia­mond, Ph.D., is Pro­fes­sor of Neu­ro­science and Anato­my at UC-Berke­ley  and one of the world’s fore­most researchers on neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty and enrich­ment since the 1960s . She is author of more than 100 sci­en­tif­ic arti­cles and three books, includ­ing Enrich­ing Hered­i­ty (Free Press/Simon and Schus­ter, 1988) and The Mag­ic Trees of the Mind (Plume, 1999). In par­tic­u­lar, she is inter­est­ed in study­ing the effects of the exter­nal envi­ron­ment, aging, and immune respons­es on the cere­bral neocortex.

You can read a num­ber of her pub­lic edu­ca­tion essays online:

• The Brain … Use It or Lose It: a core com­po­nent of brain exer­cise is chal­lenge. Pas­sive obser­va­tion is not enough.
• Why Ein­stein’s Brain?:  Dr. Dia­mond describes how she came to be inter­est­ed in study­ing the par­tic­u­lar­i­ties in Ein­stein’s brain back in the ear­ly 1980s.
• Suc­cess­ful Aging of the Healthy Brain: beau­ti­ful essay on how to keep our brains and minds active and fit through­out our lifetime.
• Response of the Brain to Enrich­ment: although the brain pos­sess­es a rel­a­tive­ly con­stant struc­ture, the ever-chang­ing cere­bral cor­tex is pow­er­ful­ly shaped by expe­ri­ences before birth, dur­ing youth and, in fact, through­out life.
• The Sig­nif­i­cance of Enrich­ment: here, the brain phys­i­o­log­i­cal changes are explored in more detail.
• My Search for Love and Wis­dom in the Brain: The frontal lobe is undoubt­ed­ly the most impor­tant area to cul­mi­nate the neur­al process­es lead­ing to what we call wis­dom and the most refined sense of love.

To learn more about the agen­da of the Sharp­Brains Sum­mit and the incred­i­ble ros­ter of speak­ers who have agreed to par­tic­i­pate in this impor­tant event, click on Sharp­Brains Sum­mit.