The Hot Brain 2: UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology's second Climate Change conference

2023 was the hottest year on record. Already this year, weather records have been broken across the world, including in the UK. Adverse weather events and hotter temperatures affect the health and wellbeing of people with neurological diseases. In the 2022 heatwaves in the UK, 18.7% of the excess deaths related to neurological conditions. It is vital that we understand what climate change will do to the human brain.

This year we held Hot Brain 2: Climate Change and Brain Health, exploring the many important aspects of the impacts of climate change on brain function in health and disease. We heard sobering testimony of the lived experience of heat illness which set the meeting in a personal context. Reviewing the current state of the climate and projections of its future, we also heard about its impact on human health in general. Informative talks followed on many aspects of climate change, temperature and humidity and the brain, including effects on brain temperature, brain excitability, sleep, neurological infections, climate anxiety, adaptation and greener clinical trials and pathways to more sustainable research.

Professor Sanjay Sisodiya, Deputy Director, Sustainability and Climate Change, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology

Lisa Vanhala, Pro-Vice-Provost Climate Crisis, UCL

Climate change affects us all, and all our work. It is not climate change or scientific endeavour as usual, but scientific endeavour in the context of climate change. This meeting raised awareness about climate impacts on the brain, and opened up areas for collaboration and action. We plan to hold Hot Brain 2 in May 2025 and look forward to further insights and opportunities for transdisciplinary working and action

Links

• Conference Programme
• Sanjay M Sisodiya, Climate change and neurology: time to talk and to act, The Lancet Neurology, Volume 22, Issue 8, 2023, Pages 656-657
• Sanjay M Sisodiya, et al. “Climate change and disorders of the nervous system”, Lancet Neurol. 2024; 23: 636-648. 
• Faculty sustainability blog post on Hot Brain conferences
• Sustainability at ION