Winchester Academy speaker on the aging brain
By Maggie Jones
David Bailey will present “Memory and the Aging Brain” at 6:30 p.m. Monday, March 7, at the Waupaca Area Public Library.
Hosted by Winchester Academy, the program is free and open to the public.
As people age, the ability of brain cells to form or generate recall of certain memories fades. The brain becomes smaller over time and neurons in specific regions of the brain lose essential components. These changes lead to common age-related memory loss.
Bailey explain the parts of the brain that are important to memory and what occurs to neurons that leads to memory formation, usage and loss.
He will also discuss results of studies with human volunteers and patients, with a focus on what produces simple forgetting, how changes in behavior can stave off normal or abnormal memory loss, and the causes and consequences of Alzheimer’s disease.
His program will conclude with how this research has led to pioneering treatments for memory loss, such as advances in drug design and brain scanning, in the hopes that one day memory loss would not have to be an inevitable process of aging.
David Bailey is associate professor of biology at St. Nobert College, De Pere. He was named Outstanding Teacher of the Year in 2015, with one student confirming that “He made lectures interesting, is funny, and clearly knows the material inside and out.”
Bailey received his bachelor’s degree in biological sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and both his master’s degree in psychology and his doctorate in behavioral neuroscience at Michigan State University.
Winchester Academy is funded through sponsors and tax-deductible donations.
Bailey’s program is sponsored by T-Dubs Public House in Waupaca.
For more information about Winchester Academy, check winchesteracademywaupaca.org, follow on Facebook or contact Executive Director Ann Buerger Linden at 715-258-2927 or [email protected].