Sponsored by Barclays

The Lecture was held at the The Royal Institution of Great Britain on 22nd April 2009. The speaker was Baroness Susan Greenfield.

“The impact of current technology on the mind of the 21st Century child”

We explored some of the latest findings in neuroscience on how exquisitely the human brain adapts to the environment and to see how unprecedented and different the environment in the future might be. Finally: if the brain is sensitive to the environment, and if the environment is changing, then, will the brain of the 21st Century child be transformed in unprecedented ways? The time is now ripe for taking action in harnessing current and future technologies, to ensure that we can realise the full potential that living in the 21st Century has to offer.

Following Baroness Greenfield’s lecture, a panel put some questions to her for discussion. The Panel consisted of :

Lord Stephen Carter, Minister for Technology, Communications & Broadcasting at BERR
Cathy Turner, Group Human Resources Director at Barclays
Ms Martha Lane Fox, Founder of Lastminute.com and Lucky Voice
Mr Gavin Patterson, Chief Executive BT Retail
Adam Singer, Deputy Chair of the Ofcom Content Board & Chair of Teachers TV Board of Governors

Baroness Susan Greenfield CBE

Baroness Greenfield is Director of the Royal Institution of Great Britain (the first woman to hold that position) and Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Oxford, where she leads a multi-disciplinary team investigating neurodegenerative disorders. In addition she is Director of the Oxford Centre for the Science of the Mind, exploring the physical basis of consciousness.

Her books include “The Human Brain: A Guided Tour” (1997), “The Private Life of the Brain” (2000), and “Tomorrow’s People: How 21st Century Technology Is Changing the Way We Think and Feel” (2003) and “‘ID’ – The Quest for Identity” (2008). She has spun off four companies from her research, made a diverse contribution to print and broadcast media, and led a Government report on “Women In Science”. She has received 30 Honorary Degrees, Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians (2000), a non-political Life Peerage (2001) as well as the Ordre National de la Legion d’Honneur (2003). In 2006 she was installed as Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University and voted `Honorary Australian of the Year’. In 2007 she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Video of the 2009 Lecture

In the Press

Daily Mail:
How Facebook addiction is damaging your child’s brain: A leading neuroscientist’s chilling warning.
By BARONESS SUSAN GREENFIELD. 23rd April 2009
Read the full article here >

The Telegraph:
Impact of computer games on children’s brains needs research, says Lady Greenfield. Lady Greenfield, the leading neuroscientist, will call for ministers to fund a study into the impact of computer games and social network sites on the attention spans of children.
By Alastair Jamieson, 22 Apr 2009
Read full article here > 

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