Meet the brain donors

Twelve elderly people - all of whom have chosen to give their brains to neuroscience upon their deaths - have agreed to waive their right to donor anonymity for a new exhibition, supported by the Wellcome Trust, that combines art and science.

The participants - five of whom have already died - want to increase understanding about dementia, and had already agreed to allow their brains to be studied for physical signs of the disease, even though they might not, while alive, have outward symptoms.

Mind Over Matter, which opens in London this week, looks at the donors' past lives and tries to demystify what happens in brain bank laboratories. It was put together by artist Ania Dabrowska and Dr Bronwyn Parry from Queen Mary, University of London.

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Mind Over Matter - supported by the Wellcome Trust - can be seen at Shoreditch Town Hall in London between 12-23 October 2011.

Eric Stannard, Beryl Foreman, Frank Walbank, Irene Overton and Ella Wiltshire have died.

All images copyright Ania Dabrowska. Music courtesy KPM Music.

Slideshow production by Paul Kerley. Publication date 10 October 2011.

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Mind Over Matter

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