With the Canadian population getting older, the number of people with declining cognitive skills is on the rise. These skills include our ability to process spatial information.

Birds are an excellent model for understanding why, as people age, they get lost in environments, even ones that are quite familiar.  A University of Manitoba researcher has implemented the knowledge gained from this animal model to develop and implement new procedures for studying healthy aging as well as early stage Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Debbie Kelly, Associate Professor of Psychology and Canada Research Chair in Comparative Cognition at the University of Manitoba is the first in the world to use bird (pigeon) models to investigate how aging affects the way our brain functions when we use - and start to lose - our ability to navigate.

Head of a state-of-the-art Avian-Human Aging laboratory, Debbie Kelly is offering a free public presentation on how birds help us better understand age-related spatial degeneration.

What: Bringing Research to Life speakers series presentation A Bird’s Eye View of Spatial Cognition
Given by: Dr. Debbie Kelly, Canada Research Chair in Comparative Cognition; Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts
Date: Wednesday, March 15, 2011 at 7:00 p.m.
Location: McNally Robinson Booksellers, 1120 Grant Avenue

For more information contact Melni Ghattora, Research Communications and Marketing Officer at (204) 474-9020.