Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Neuroscience takes centre stage

2013; Elsevier BV; Volume: 12; Issue: 8 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s1474-4422(13)70082-6

1474-4465

Peter Ranscombe,

Ophthalmology and Visual Health Research

“I'm not normal,” laughed James Piercy as he launched into his show, What's going on in his head? at the Edinburgh International Science Festival (EISF). Standing on the stage in Edinburgh University Student Association's debating hall, the only outward sign of any physical problems is the black patch he wears over his right eye, but Piercy has fought back from brain injuries sustained in a car crash in January, 2011, which claimed the life of his wife. “Why do I talk about this horrible stuff?”, Piercy asked his audience. “My job for 20 years was as a science communicator, traveling around festivals like Edinburgh talking about science and engineering. So it made sense to me to start talking about my life since the accident.” Piercy was left with a haemorrhage in his right hemisphere, which is now monitored with a subarachnoid bolt, and a diffuse axonal injury in his left hemisphere, which has caused him more problems. Piercy's neurologist has described the speed of his recovery as “phenomenal”, which Piercy puts down to writing this show about his brain injury. Apart from a slight weakness down his right-hand side and blurred vision due to problems with the muscle below his right eye, fatigue has been the main challenge. “I'll probably be a mess tomorrow,” he smiled after delivering two shows on the same day at the EISF, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, before going on to perform his first stand-up comedy routine that evening. Piercy's talk led me exactly where he had planned, from squirming in my seat at the start of his show as he explained in graphic detail about his injuries, through to warming to him by the end of the night, thanks to his use of humour. Looking at the lighter side of neurology was also the approach used by Rustam Al-Shahi Salman, a Medical Research Council Senior Clinical Fellow at the University of Edinburgh and an Honorary Clinical Neurologist at the National Health Service Lothian Western General Hospital in Edinburgh. In his talk Picturing the brain, he focused on the growing trend for on-demand MRI scans of the brain and whether the availability of the whole body scans advertised on daytime television and in mid-market tabloid newspapers has any health benefits. Salman began by running through the clinical uses for MRI scans and recounted his own experience of being scanned while he was a medical student. He went on to highlight the pros and cons of prospectively screening for what he called “incidental-omas” such as aneurisms, cysts, microbleeds, and tumours in seemingly healthy individuals, and how to balance the ability to give patients reassurance and take preventative measures against the anxiety of finding something wrong, the side-effects from any treatment, and the stress caused when doctors are unable or unwilling to treat a problem. Through an exchange of letters in the satirical magazine Private Eye in 2006, Salman has very publicly questioned whether such brain scans improve survival rates in the long-term, and he is an excellent advocate for evidence-based medicine and the need for a large-scale randomised control trial to judge the benefits of MRI scans on healthy individuals. So persuasive was his argument that, despite citing the example of Karren Brady, Managing Director of Birmingham City Football Club, who was diagnosed with and had surgery for a brain aneurysm when she had an MRI scan after developing a nut allergy, at the start of his talk 80% of the audience would have considered having an MRI scan while they were healthy, but by the end the figure had fallen to about 60%. Public engagement with science was also at the heart of the talk Genes, cells and brains: the Promethean promises of the new biology, given by husband and wife team of Steven Rose (neuroscientist and 2004 Edinburgh Medal winner) and Hilary Rose (science sociologist), who gave contrasting but complementary views on what they called the “three big hypes of hope”: genomics and personalised medicine in the 1990s, stem cells in the 2000s, and neuroscience in the present decade. The Roses, using extracts from their book of the same title, claimed that the Human Genome Project had not produced the medical breakthroughs it had promised and neither yet had the stem cell studies that heralded the era of regenerative medicine. They argued that the present wave of neuroscience projects, such as the €3 billion EU Human Brain Project and the US$3bn US Brain Action Map, would be the “third big hype” by promising to cure diseases through the understanding of how brains are wired or how nerve cells connect. Hilary Rose blamed the lack of progress on scientists being too close to venture capitalists, and called for the public to get a “democratic grip” on the science being done in their name, to avoid other costly projects that do not produce results. When asked in the question and answer session after their talk about how science could be democratised, she explained that there needed to be a dialogue between scientists and the public through public “engagement” with science events, rather than scientists simply lecturing an audience during public “understanding” of science events. Steven Rose also defended the need for “blue sky” investigations, particularly when it came to humanity wanting to answer questions about its origins. Though drier than Piercy's or Salman's talks, the Roses' words were warmly received by the audience; food for thought for anyone planning to engage the public more in scientific debate. Picturing the brain A talk by Rustam Al-Shahi Salman. 2013Genes, Cells and Brains: The Promethean Promises of the New Biology Hilary Rose, Steven Rose. Verso Books, 2012. Pp 336. £20. ISBN 1844678814 Picturing the brain A talk by Rustam Al-Shahi Salman. 2013 Genes, Cells and Brains: The Promethean Promises of the New Biology Hilary Rose, Steven Rose. Verso Books, 2012. Pp 336. £20. ISBN 1844678814