Join us for international special guest speaker Associate Professor Joana Perera. 

How is your brain aging?

Speaker: Assoc Prof Joana Perera – Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
Date: Friday 26 September, 1pm – 2pm AEST
Zoom: Click here to join the seminar

Abstract:
We often think of brain aging as something we can see only when memory starts to slip or movement slows down. But in reality, the brain begins to change silently decades before symptoms appear. In this talk, I will show how we can use brain scans to uncover these hidden changes. By tracking molecular signals, like the proteins that build up in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, and by mapping how different brain regions stay connected, we can start to see how aging reshapes the brain. I will also focus on tiny but crucial regions that act as hubs for attention, sleep, and movement, and that are among the first to be affected in dementia and Parkinson’s. Finally, I will touch on how lifestyle factors such as exercise and diet may interact with these processes, offering possible ways to protect brain health across the lifespan.

Bio:
Joana B. Pereira is an Associate Professor at Karolinska Institute, where she leads the Brain Connectomics Lab. Her research bridges brain imaging, molecular neuroscience, and artificial intelligence to better understand how the brain changes with age and disease. She has authored over 100 publications, co-developed BRAPH — an open-access software for analyzing brain connectivity with graph theory and deep learning — and serves as scientific coordinator of the NeurotechEU European Alliance on Neurotechnology. She also chairs the interdisciplinary conference Emerging Topics in Artificial Intelligence and received the prestigious De Leon Prize in 2021 for her contributions to Alzheimer’s disease.