Brain Awareness Week is the global campaign to increase public awareness of the progress and benefits of brain research. Every March, it unites the efforts of partner organizations worldwide in a celebration of the brain for people of all ages.

Activities are limited only by the organizers’ imaginations and include open days at neuroscience labs; exhibitions about the brain; lectures on brain-related topics; social media campaigns; displays at libraries and community centers; classroom workshops; and more.

At GlassesOff, our team of neuroscientists are at the forefront of innovation and research to help people exercise their brain cortex to improve visual abilities so we’re always excited to embrace initiatives such as Brain Awareness Week to help people from around the world find out more about the capabilities of our brain, how to take better care of it and in which ways we can embrace its potential to live better and healthier lives.

Here are some highlights from key pieces across the global media which we saw over the past week:

1. Teaching the Brain

The Guardian put together a comprehensive list of resources for teachers full of resources for education professionals to teach children as young as five about the brain. Advances in technology and medicine mean that we know more about the brain than we’ve ever known before so this is a great way to inform and inspire younger generations about the importance the brain has on how we perceive the world around us.

2. NFL stars donate their brains to science

NFL stars Steve Weatherford and Sidney Rice announced they will donate their brains to science. Brain-related injuries are commonplace among professional football players so this bold move from NFL stars have the ambition to help scientists understand better the long-term cognitive effects that football has on the brain.

3. Tricks for a healthy brain

This easy to follow list from BT brings 11 tips and tricks to keep your brain in good shape.  From listening to music to getting enough sleep, these tips will help you keep your brain active. You don’t need special devices or expensive gear – training your brain can be simple and fun!

4. Treating Pain with neuroimaging

A new study from Oxford University looks into neuroimaging as a way to determine the effectiveness of different treatments and drugs to relief pain. As pain is a sensation partially created in the brain, this new discoveries can help us understand the neural signature of pain and its relief.

5. Stop killing brain cells

Medical Daily gave us some warnings to ensure we don’t kill our precious brain cells unnecessarily. Regular smoking, dehydration, stress and narcotics are  can play a significant role in the early deterioration of our brain.

6. Our brain’s GPS

Health AIM used Brain Awareness week to focus our attention on the role of the Hippocampus – a region of the brain that plays a key role in our memory and it’s thought to operate as a cognitive map. Remembering our way home might seems obvious to most of us but people with dementia or Alzheimer struggle to remember the ‘map’ to their routines. The three scientists behind the discovery of how our brain allow us to find our way round were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2014 as this new knowledge about how our memory works could have significant impact to treat memory-related diseases.

We look forward to next year’s Brain Awareness Week to keep learning about our fascinating brains as the global scientific community keeps pushing boundaries to educate the world on the importance of the brain and the potential that science and technology have to uncap its potential.

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