2019 Events
2019 Events
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Did you know that doing something challenging – including something you fail at before mastering – changes the wiring of your brain?
Join the HR MacMillan Space Centre and the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health for another lecture in their Universe of the Brain series.Take part in an interactive evening, with leading experts in neuroscience, under state-of-the-art visuals in the planetarium star theatre.
This practical and empowering talk will provide tangible ways to improve your brain health and wellbeing through non-prescription lifestyle interventions anyone can do.
Since all of our behaviours change our brains learn how exercise, exposure to nature, social connections, and creativity can optimize brain health across several aspects of our lives.
About our speakers:
Dr. Lara Boyd is the Canada Research Chair in Neurobiology of Motor Learning, a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Career Investigator, a Peter Wall Scholar, and a Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, at the University of British Columbia. She is a Neuroscientist and Physical Therapist, and directs the Brain Behaviour Lab at the University of British Columbia. Her work is centered on answering the question of what limits, and what facilitates, neuroplasticity. Dr. Boyd is also the Health Research Advisor to the Vice President for Research at UBC and the University’s delegate to the Canadians Institutes for Health Research.
Dr Silke Appel-Cresswell is a movement disorder neurologist, trained in Germany, London (UK) and Vancouver, BC. She is an Associate Professor (grant tenure) for Medicine/Neurology at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and holds the Marg Meikle Professorship for Research in Parkinson’s disease. Dr Appel-Cresswell is a founding director of the BC Brain Wellness Foundation to foster wellbeing in chronic brain disease and aging through exercise, arts, nutrition, mind care, and education.
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Join us for a musical coffee break - we'll hear informal presentations from Dr. Robin Hsiung and graduate student Bonnie Lee, as well as a special musical performance from the University Hill Secondary School Choir and our Brain Wellness Program Music & Movement class.
It promises to be an uplifting and inspiring way to start your day!
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Dr. HR Nagendra will present research on yoga, its role in health and health care as well as standards and quality issues. This will be followed by an interactive discussion and information on the Canada India Network Society for an opportunity to foster international collaborations. Coffee and snacks available.
Dr. Nagendra is an Indian mechanical engineer, Yoga therapist, academic, writer and the founder and current chancellor of Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana (S-VYASA), located in Bengaluru and one of the most prominent yoga universities in India. He is an expert on the role of Integrative Medicine in Modern Health and health care and has extensive experience in Therapeutic Integrative Medicine and Health promotion. Current work includes a focus on Public Policy and on standards and quality issues in Yoga. Dr. Nagendra currently serves as the Chair of the International Yoga Day and on the expert committee of the Ayush and SAC of the Central Council for research in Yoga and Naturopathy.
He has authored 35 books and over 100 research papers on Yoga. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2016, for his contributions to society, he is a recipient of the Yoga Shri title from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
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Join the dystonia community for our patient symposium event held by The Dystonia Medical Research Foundation.
This full-day session will include updates on dystonia research, treatment methods, tips on living well with dystonia, and information on how you can get involved with the dystonia community.
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An improv series in three sessions!
Caregivers welcome to attend.
Through improvisation exercises, participants will enjoy activities that foster the skills of presence, listening, spontaneity, teamwork and co-creation.
This workshop series will help you to overcome the barriers of anxiety, fear and overthinking by releasing expectations and being in the moment. The series will encourage you to discover the joy in collaborating with others and to apply this approach to overcome isolation and the discouraging effects of living with compromised brain health.
Through the class, we will play improv games and activities that will help to boost your communication abilities and creativity, creating confidence and the ability to "yes, and" your symptoms and your life.
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Two talks will be given at UBC's School of Music by David Huron (Professor Emeritus, Ohio State University). Both talks are scheduled for Friday, October 25.
David Huron is Professor Emeritus at the Ohio State University where he was formerly Distinguished Professor in the School of Music and at the Center for Cognitive and Brain Sciences. In 2017, he received the Society for Music Perception and Cognition's lifetime Achievement Award.
Existing theories of emotion are plagued by a number of problems. People commonly smile when stressed, laugh when in a state of fear, and weep at weddings. Although anger is usually regarded as a negative emotion, research suggests that people enjoy the feeling of righteous indignation. Such puzzles are also common in music where listeners may enjoy being moved by sad music or take pleasure in the aggression of Death Metal.
In this 90-minute presentation, I detail a general theory of emotion inspired by research in ethology. I argue that, compared with existing theories, ethological theory offers a more comprehensive, integrated, and parsimonious account of emotion. The theory accounts for many apparent puzzles and paradoxes, such as the weeping of beauty pageant winners. Finally, the theory is used to explain how sad music can be enjoyable for many listeners.
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Music is both personal and social. The music we enjoy reveals a great deal about who we are as individuals, and can enhance or diminish feelings of connection with others. But music also has therapeutic properties, and can even be used to treat individuals with neurological impairments.
Presenter: William Thompson
In this talk, Distinguished Professor Bill Thompson, a Peter Wall Institute International Visiting Research Scholar, will describe scientific research on the psychological, social, and neurological effects of music. He will summarise some of the music interventions that are now being used to treat a range of neurological impairments, and will argue that these same therapeutic qualities of music can be used to promote feelings of inclusion among all people who are isolated, marginalized or stigmatized in society. Drawing upon a range of musical examples, he will identify the most powerful active ingredients of music and other creative arts, and show how they can nurture health, wellbeing, and feelings of belonging.
Bill Thompson is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology and the Director of the Music Sound and Performance Lab at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. His research concerns the psychology and neuroscience of music, including cross-cultural music cognition, music and emotion, and the psychosocial and health benefits of music. He is the author of “Music, Thought and Feeling: Understanding the Psychology of Music” (Oxford University Press).
This event is co-hosted by: The UBC School of Music and the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brian Health.
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The data is in — a tidal wave of new understanding of ancient practices shows that arts-medicine phenomena abound — dancing helps Parkinson's patients, singing promotes wellbeing and memory for dementia patients, music-based therapies helps stroke victims regain speech and autistic children communicate. Arts and humanities help medical students develop skills and empathies, while medical/psychotherapeutic practices help music students with injury prevention and performance confidence. Exercise-based community arts assist health and wellbeing across the lifespan. Drama therapies traverse an array of conceptual and emotional boundaries. Art modalities can be powerful agents of knowledge translation across the academic spectrum, and to build eloquent bridges for cross-cultural understanding.
And all around the world, all of us engage Art in some way, everyday - and always have, for as far back as we can trace human communities. Some (like Darwin) have said it is one of the grandest mysteries of our species.
HeartBEATS will include speakers and performers from a broad spectrum of artistic practices and diverse research areas whose work draws connections between realms.
Join us to explore how art connects us to wellness, health, and to everyone/thing else.
More information, including the day's schedule: music.ubc.ca/transcending-boundaries
This event is co-hosted by The UBC School of Music and the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health.
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To celebrate the launch of the BC Brain Wellness Program, we invite you to join us for an open-house style event including wellness- and lifestyle-focused talks and interactive sessions on healthy aging, nutrition, music, mindfulness, self-management, and sexual health.
Enjoy a nutritious lunch and participate in interactive sessions to learn how to incorporate visual arts, music, and movement into your daily life, and learn how we're incorporating lifestyle interventions into clinical care for healthier aging and better patient and caregiver wellbeing.
This is the start of something big, and we hope you will be part of it!