What makes our brain resilient? FASS researchers find interdisciplinary answers at Institute for Neuroscience and Neurotechnology workshop

The Simon Fraser University (SFU) Institute for Neuroscience and Neurotechnology (INN) hosted a three-day Brain Resilience Workshop to bring together experts from a wide range of disciplines to present on the factors that contribute to brain resilience, from cells and circuits to culture and community. 

Imagine a medical scenario where two patients suffer a stroke in the same region of the brain. One patient recovers well and goes on to live with very few repercussions caused by the stroke, whereas the other patient experiences impactful cognitive effects for the rest of their life. How can two people with the exact same localized stroke experience such different medical outcomes?

This phenomenon is known as “brain resilience,” which describes the capacity of the brain to mitigate vulnerability to risk factors like a stroke event. Brain resilience is a central research interest of the Institute for Neuroscience and Neurotechnology (INN), an interdisciplinary research hub comprised of researchers across SFU engaged in cutting-edge neuroscience and neurotechnology research, training, and community engagement.

The INN's Brain Resilience Workshop featured Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) faculty members Molly Cairncross, Brianne Kent, Grace Iarocci, and Theodore Cosco, who collectively covered the intersection of resilience and mental health, and resilience and aging.  

Kelly Shen, the INN’s senior program manager and informatics lead, says that it is crucial to study brain resilience—and neuroscience in general—from a broad interdisciplinary perspective to capture the wide range of neurobiological, genetic, societal, and psychosocial approaches to the brain.

“Brain resilience is much more than what has traditionally been studied in neuroscience, which is often focused on neurobiology and how the brain works,” Shen explains. “The aim of the event is to bring together scientists studying genetic stem cells to epidemiologists and folks focusing on the mental health impacts that can affect someone’s resilience to, for example, dementia or neurodevelopmental disorders." 

Studying the brain across disciplines

The INN’s Brain Resilience Workshop was structured to represent the multidisciplinary work that is taking place in the area of brain resilience at FASS, SFU, and abroad. To promote connection across disciplines, the workshop fostered discussion among faculty, graduate researchers, post-doctoral fellows, and trainees from different subject areas. Each day consisted of a program of brief “ideas talks” and a keynote speech, followed by a designated block of time for roundtable discussion. 

"It is the Institute's mission to give a fairly disparate community a platform to share ideas from across many disciplines,” says Shen. “We're trying to bring together all of the great research that's happening in the field around neuroscience and neurotechnology and make it easy to access so that it has greater impact on the SFU community.”

Faculty and graduate researchers from FASS featured prominently in the first lineup of talks, which covered the intersection of resilience and mental health, neurological disorders, mental well-being, and neurodevelopmental determinants to psychiatric illnesses. Focusing on the challenge of translating research findings into public health impacts, Psychology professor Molly Cairncross presented her research on psychological predictors of concussion recovery. As director of the CORTECH Lab, professor Cairncross and her team study risk and resilience factors using quantitative, qualitative, and patient-oriented research methods to develop accessible tech-based interventions that target mental health problems following concussion. 

The second day centered around cells and circuits in neuroscience, with a keynote speech by Brian MacVicar (UBC) on the application of imaging techniques to study nerve cells during stroke. The workshop’s third theme was resilience across the lifespan, bringing together researchers from FASS Departments of Psychology and Gerontology to share their contributions to resilience studies from early childhood development all the way to the aging brain. Brianne Kent, who is Canada Research Chair in Translational Neuroscience and Dementia, presented on the role of sleep and circadian rhythms in the progression of dementia, and Theodore Cosco explored the intersection of healthy aging, resilience, and mental health across the life course.

Grace Iarocci delivered the final keynote speech, presenting research findings from the SFU Autism & Developmental Disorders Lab on social factors at pivotal developmental time points that support resilience in autistic individuals and their families. Professor Iarocci is recognized as one of BC’s “key researchers” on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Throughout her professional and academic career, she has worked closely with government agencies and community partners to educate and advocate for the needs of persons with ASD and their families. 

Creating access to neuroscience research

Since its launch as an interdisciplinary research hub in 2020, the INN has been committed to creating better access to the most current knowledge and research in the field around neuroscience and neurotechnology. 

Shen says that one of the Institute’s missions is to translate fundamental neuroscience knowledge into effective health interventions and technologies, which requires a robust interdisciplinary research framework as well as community-based education initiatives.

Part of this commitment to “translational neuroscience” involves hosting public outreach events to share innovations in brain research with community members. During Brain Awareness Week in April 2023, the INN hosted a series of public events aimed at secondary school students between the ages of 7-18 years old. The three events invited students to use the INN’s state-of-the-art neuroscience equipment to learn about how the brain adapts to injury and changes in the environment. 

“Public outreach is important in terms of our focus on education beyond our walls. Educating students, their families, and the public about brain resilience is one of our primary missions,” says Shen.