Renowned neuroscientist to speak at VCU about exercise’s benefits to learning, memory and thinking

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Wendy Suzuki, Ph.D., a renowned neuroscientist and author of “Healthy Brain, Happy Life: A Personal Program to Activate Your Brain and Do Everything Better,” will speak at Virginia Commonwealth University on Tuesday, Oct. 9.

Wendy Suzuki, Ph.D., is best known for her extensive work studying areas in the brain critical for our ability to form and retain new long-term memories. (Courtesy photo)
Wendy Suzuki, Ph.D., is best known for her extensive work studying areas in the brain critical for our ability to form and retain new long-term memories. (Courtesy photo)

Suzuki, a professor of neural science and psychology in the Center for Neural Science at New York University, will deliver her lecture, “Practical Neuroscience for Everyday Life,” at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of Grace E. Harris Hall, 1015 Floyd Ave. The event will be free and open to the public.

Suzuki’s lecture is the 11th annual Health and Physical Activity Lecture, sponsored by the Department of Kinesiology and Health Sciences in the College of Humanities and Sciences.

“We are quite fortunate to have Dr. Suzuki come to share her work addressing aerobic exercise and its very practical impact on improving our learning, memory and higher-level thinking,” said Joann T. Richardson, Ph.D., chair and associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Sciences.

Suzuki, who has been featured on “The Dr. Oz Show,” is best known for her extensive work studying areas in the brain critical for our ability to form and retain new long-term memories.

Her research program at New York University is attempting to define the optimal exercise “prescription” that maximally enhances learning, memory, attention, mood and academic performance in school and university settings. She is also exploring the kinds of exercise that improve cognition in adult populations and how we can most effectively use exercise to improve mood and cognition in a number of different neurological conditions including traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and depression.