'Ella-Whiltshire' Mind over Matter

A new exhibition at the Shoreditch Town Hall is set to explain what it means to donate your brain.

Mind Over Matter, reveals the extraordinary contribution that 12 donors, aged from 83 to 101, will make to finding cures for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s in the 21st century.

Who donates his or her brain to science? Where do these brains go and how are they used? These are just some of the questions a new exhibition, inspired by the research of Professor Carol Brayne, is aiming to explain.

Mind Over Matter is a revolutionary photography exhibition featuring portraits of brain donors whose identities are revealed for the first time. By demystifying what happens behind the doors of brain bank laboratories, the exhibition draws back the veil of secrecy surrounding the practice of organ donation in celebration of those who elect to donate their brains after death for the purposes of neuroscientific research.

A stirring mixture of images and soundscapes, Mind Over Matter, reveals the extraordinary contribution that 12 donors, aged from 83 to 101, will make to finding cures for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s in the 21st century.  All those photographed were from Cambridgeshire, participants in two longitudinal studies of ageing co-ordinated by Cambridge University’s Department of Public Health and Primary Care - the Cambridge City over-75s Cohort study3 and the MRC Cognitive Function and Ageing Study - in collaboration with the Cambridge Brain Bank.

The Wellcome Trust funded exhibition is the result of a collaboration between the artist Ania Dabowska and social scientist Bronwyn Parry. It focuses on 12 brain donors from Brayne’s studies – the stories of their lives and triumphs, and their reasons for donating.

Entry to the free exhibition runs until Sunday, 23 October. The exhibition is open Mon–Fri, 10.00am–6.00 pm, Sat–Sun, 12.00–6.00 pm. Shoreditch Town Hall, 380 Old Street, London EC1V 9LT.


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