The human brain has the ability to change and respond to injury and stress throughout life.
Studying how this happens and working with patients going through this has been the work of UW-Associate Professor Dr. Bernadette Gillick.
“No matter what age we are and no matter what we face. There is always the capacity for change. There is always the capacity for us to develop new skills, new techniques or learn something new within all ages of our lifespan,” said Gillick.
In addition to her work as an associate professor at UW-Madison, Gillick has worked as a pediatric physical therapist for 30 years.
She works with infants and children who have had a stroke and go on to develop cerebral palsy.
“We were trying to investigate how can we improve the rehabilitation options that the children have and how to improve their quality of life throughout their lifespan. I’m just fascinated in the ways we can use technology and advance technology to try to help these wonderful people early in their lives throughout their lifespan,” said Gillick.
She’ll be expanding on that work at the upcoming Science on Tap talk going into how the brain can adapt to changes at any age, just in different ways.
“Really unique ways that allow us to be incredibly functional in our lives and also to respond to stress or challenges, diagnosis, or disease. And what we do actually succeed at being as functional as possible in our lives,” said Gillick.
Science on Tap-Minocqua is Thursday, May 4 at 6:30 p.m. at Oakfire Pizzeria and Bar in Minocqua.
You can also watch it live online.
“This talk actually brings together the understanding of how our brain functions in kind of a nerdy and fun way to actually say, ‘Okay. I can get this. I can understand this because it’s actually about me.’ It’s actually about each one of us, the capacity that we all have for change within our brain,” said Gillick.
