Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA)

One of Bryan Kolb’s most memorable talks was a public lecture in Lac La Biche, AB, attended by many First Nations elders. Kolb spoke about how stress and abuse during childhood can cause certain genes in the brain to be turned on or off, and how these changes can be passed from one generation to another — altering the behaviour of the offspring. Through this explanation, the elders began to see the problem of residential schools in an entirely new light. Dr. Kolb will explain how severe stress, for example in residential schools, can cross generations and cause all kinds of problems later. Thanks to institutions like U of L’s Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, it is now recognized that childhood stress and abuse has many consequences. But the wide-ranging societal implications of the ongoing research, being conducted by Kolb at the University of Lethbridge, suggests the most important work — actually reversing the neurological effects of early adversity — is still to come. Speaker: Dr. Bryan Kolb