As May is Women's Health Month, the upcoming Wellness Wednesday will highlight sex-differences on age-related functions. Understanding sex differences while analyzing and reading research is crucial to a holistic view of research topics, thus this session hopes to emphasize sex differences found in neurological research. The session will cover both brain and motor functions by two speakers - Dr. Jennifer Jakobi from UBC will cover topics on muscular system and Dr. Annalise Laplume from McGill University will present will present on how age and sex influence the brain over life.

Speakers

Dr. Jennifer Jakobi

Dr. Jakobi’s research is in the area of exercise neuroscience, and is the PI for the Aging-in-Place Research Cluster that aims to support the needs and choice of older women and men to age in place by maintaining active living, functional independence and social/emotional health. In Dr. Jakobi’s lab her basic research program centres upon identifying the contributions of central descending and sensory reflex pathways to the modulation of motor neuron activity and subsequent effect on force control in women (NSERC). This work informs the design of exercise programs aimed at developing interventions to maintain functional independence in older men and women. Her work is funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and CIHR. She is also the NSERC Chair for Women in Science and Engineering for the BC/Yukon Region. Through research and advocacy, the program contributes to recruiting and retaining women and underrepresented persons in the sciences.

Dr. Annalise Laplume

Dr. Annalise Laplume is a postdoctoral researcher at McGill University and the Geriatrics Institute of the University of Montreal. She has received a Masters and PhD in Psychology at York University, in addition to Graduate diplomas in quantitative methods and neuroscience. Currently, she is co-supervised by Dr. Natasha Rajah and Dr. Sylvie Belleville, where she studies how cognitive abilities and memory-related brain wiring varies with aging. She also studies how individual differences, such as sex differences which will be discussed today, shape these cognitive ability and memory.