Grant: CIHR Café Scientifique Program

We all know that we have to "use it or we will lose it", but what does this really mean? What do we lose and why? And how does using it help? This project is an opportunity for the general Canadian public to engage in direct communication with CIHR funded health research experts on the topic of mind-engagement, through education and/or participation in challenging mental activities, and its potential preventive role in the expression of neuropathology, as we age. Attendance to this event can improve personal health and the health of the aging population by providing them with a one-on-one opportunity to learn about preventive factors, identified by research in cognitive neuroscience, acute brain injury, and neuropsychiatry, in the prevention of expressed pathology in adults over 65. A panel of experts representing these fields of research will engage in communicating facts related to the benefits of staying mind-active, as we age, as a potentially useful intervention to increase resilience in older individuals at risk of cognitive impairment. By bridging the gap between the ideas and interest of the general Canadian public, CIHR and current researchers, by allowing transparency of the thinking process underlying current research investigations, and by allowing the communication of ideas between these groups to flow more freely, we gain perspective. Attendees will have an opportunity to get answers to questions they have about the subject matter and bring up important considerations to future research from their point of view. This perspective is useful in the direction of future health research funding, research initiatives and the improvement of the health delivery system. Information about this event will be disseminated to the Canadian public not attending the event through various media and social media sources.