Brain Studies: Grey Matter vs Black Boxes   Science in the Pub Number 67 With panellists John Hodges and Evian Gordon Compered by Danny Kingsley and Alf Conlon Wednesday, March 13th 2002, 7:00pm Harlequin Inn, Pyrmont Science in the Pub presents Brain Studies: Grey Matter vs Black Boxes when it tunes into Brain Awareness Week to explore advances in our knowledge of the human brain. There were almost no drugs for brain disorders 50 years ago and there was little understanding of the diseases themselves. Since then, aided by the development of new technologies, there have been some giant steps in brain research. But what matters more, brain function or brain structure? Perhaps it's a case of it ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it? Are there differences between women's and men's brains? Maybe it's just that they just use their brains differently. These are only a few of the issues that will be raised when Professor John Hodges, a neurologist from the University of Cambridge gets down to basics with Dr Evian Gordon, Director of the Brain Dynamics Centre attached to Westmead Hospital. Our switched-on comperes, Danny Kingsley, ABC Science writer and Alf Conlon, former ABC Online presenter, will guide the lively discussion and extract comments and questions from the audience. Brain Awareness Week is an initiative of the Dana Alliance in the US and Europe to promote public awareness and understanding of the brain. This is its second year in Australia and our largest centre for neuroscience research and repository of the largest brain bank in the country. The Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute is hosting public lectures and an open day on ????. John Hodges was born and raised in pubs in the West of England so speaking in one should come naturally. He slipped into medical school despite being unable to catch a rugby ball and have no medical ancestors and did surprisingly well graduating with honours from the London Hospital in 1975. After a period of indecision he settled on a career in Neurology and spent the 1980s training in Oxford. He developed an interest in the then unfashionable area of cognitive or behavioural neurology and undertook a thesis on the topic of amnesia. He then went to the Alzheimer Disease Research Centre in San Diego, California and began to study patients with dementing illnesses which has continued to be his research area. On returning to the UK he was appointed University Lecturer in the newly formed academic neurology department in the rival place (Cambridge) and pioneered a multidisciplinary approach to the study of memory disorders. In 1997 he was appointed the first Professor of Behavioural Neurology in the UK. He has published four books on memory, cognition and the dementias, plus over 300 scientific papers. During the 1990s John developed a strange passion for Oz and is consumating the affair with a year in Sydney. John's interests outside of work centre around his three children, the saxophone and the cinema. Evian Gordon is Director of the multidisciplinary Brain Dynamics Centre at Westmead Hospital and is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Sydney. His central research interest is the dynamics of the brain as an adaptive system, and has written over 100 scientific publications. He produced a 14 part TV series for SBS Television on Models of the Human Brain. In 2000 he edited a book on the series which he titled: Integrative Neuroscience: Bringing together biological, psychological and clinical models of the human brain. Dr Gordon is also currently setting up the first total quality controlled database on the human brain, under the auspices of The Brain Resource Company, for which he is CEO and Chairman. ...true to the tradition of Science in the Pub, our panellists have written their abstracts in verse.   Science in the Pub™ is the Eureka Award winning endeavour in science communication. Regular sessions are generally staged 3-4 times per year, (generally 7-9pm on Wednesdays) at the Harlequin Inn, 152 Harris Street, Pyrmont in Sydney.   Admission costs $5 worth of raffle tickets, your chance to win one of many excellent prizes! We can organise Science in YOUR Pub anywhere in Australia, or the world, when commissioned! Please contact Robyn Stutchbury, phone: 02 9427 6747; fax: 02 9427 6767; email: Robyn Stutchbury on rstutch@bigpond.net.au.  Visit our website at http://www.scienceinthepub.com/. Future Science in the Pub sessions (see the website for full details):
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