Climate change and epilepsy: Hot Brain 4
The fourth annual Hot Brain conference brought together researchers from across the globe to discuss the urgent impact of climate change on brain health.
Researchers based at the Epilepsy Society Research Centre, attending Hot Brain 4. From left to right: Dr Ravishankara Ravishankara, Research Fellow, UCL; Dr. Medine Gulcebi Idriz Oglu, Prof of Clinical Pharmacology, Marmara University School of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey; Dr. Ravi More, Research Fellow, UCL.
Last week, researchers from across the globe came together to discuss the urgent impact of climate change on brain health at the fourth annual Hot Brain conference.
Jointly organised by UCL and The Lancet Neurology, Hot Brain aims to raise awareness about the risks of climate change for brain health and disease, and promote action to tackle climate change and foster adaptation strategies.
The event brought together leading scientists from world-renowned institutions to share their findings. These included Harvard University in the USA, Nagasaki University in Japan, the University of Sydney in Australia, Maastricht University in the Netherlands, and Heidelberg University in Germany.
Speakers included Epilepsy Society’s Transformation Director, Professor Sanjay Sisodiya, who spoke about research on genetic variants that may render people more vulnerable to consequences of overheating.
Researchers also discussed how humanity can adapt through better architecture, advanced cooling mechanisms to lower body temperature, and a deeper understanding of how heat impacts different people.
By nurturing global collaborative research, Hot Brain 4 promoted action against climate change, highlighted the impact of climate change on brain health, and focused on how we can promote adaptation.
Professor Sanjay Sisodiya, Professor of Neurology at UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology and Honorary Consultant Neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery and Transformation Director at Epilepsy Society, said, “Rising global temperatures present distinct challenges for individuals with neurological conditions like epilepsy. By bringing together the world’s leading experts, Hot Brain 4 is leading the way to understand these climate risks and deliver the adaptation strategies needed to address them.”