Mind, Brain and Education

This book, Mind, Brain and Education, comprises selected topics from Neurology and Psychiatry, showing both their common ground and their differences. A special emphasis is given to the role of scientific gathering with the Mind & Brain Congress as a platform for educating younger colleagues and widening their perspectives in the field of both disciplines. With the new discipline of Psychoneuroendocrinoimmunology (PNEI) and its translation to clinical practice, our long-standing comprehensive approach to the interrelation and bridging of the mind and the brain contributes to a better understanding of this challenging topic.

The reader can find new facts showing how diseases are the result of an alteration at the bio-psycho-social level. PNEI provides knowledge about the biological dynamics of conventional medicine and of the importance of lifestyle changes in order to fight disease.

Written by experts in the field, the exceptional new approach provided by this book, makes it an innovative tool for spreading new knowledge, and implementing it in everyday clinical practice for the benefit of patients and even more so, to prevent them becoming patients in the first place.

Professor Vida Demarin, MD, Ph.D. graduated from School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Croatia, where she gained her Master of Science thesis and Doctor of Philosophy degree. She finished her residency in neuropsychiatry in University Hospital Centre “Sestre milosrdnice”, Zagreb, Croatia.

She was Head of Department of Clinical Neurology and Centre for Neurological Sciences and Brain Research in University Hospital Centre “Sestre Milosrdnice” (1994.-2012.), medical director of Medical Centre Aviva (2012-2015), director of International Institute for Brain Health (2015.-on going).

She is a full member and fellow of Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. She published more than 450 different papers in national and international journals, organized and participated in numerous symposia, seminars, conferences and congresses. She mentored numerous Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Science theses, research fellows, residents and students.

Professor Demarin’s field of interest is stroke prevention and management, neurorehabilitation, neurodegenerative disorders and dementia, management of headache and migraine, neuroplasticity, and neuropathic pain. She was principal investigator of numerous research projects. She is a pioneer of neurosonology in Croatia, and the founder of Summer Stroke School – Healthy Lifestyle and Prevention of Stroke and Other Brain Impairments, that has been organized in Dubrovnik, Croatia since 1990.

Professor Vida Demarin is a member of numerous national and international professional societies, president of Kuratorium of Mind&Brain INPC, Fellow of American Academy of Neurology, Fellow of American Heart Association, Fellow of European Stroke Organization, Fellow of European Academy of Neurology, Fellow of World Stroke Organization, as well as a member of several Subspecialty Panels of EAN,  member of Executive Board of Central and Eastern European Stroke Society, honorary member of Polish Neurologic Society and more.

She developed intensive collaboration with colleagues from all over the world and especially with colleagues from central and eastern European countries, in order to spread knowledge and skills and interchange of ideas. She participated as a lecturer at several ESO Summer Schools as well as at several RTCs, building new connections and friendships. Only working together, under WFN motto: There is no health, without brain health, we can be successful in the fight against brain diseases

Prof. Leontino Battistin, MD, PhD. Born in Fiume (actually Rijeka, Croatia), graduated in Medicine at the University of Padova Medical School in 1963; Specialist in Neurology in 1967. During the years 1967-1970 he was Research Fellow at the Institute for Neurochemistry, Columbia University, New York, USA.

Full Professor of Neurology from 1980 and then Director of the Department of Neurosciences of the Medical School of the University of Padova from 1989 to 2009. He was the Scientific Director of the Research Hospital for Neurorehabilitation, IRCCS San Camillo, Venice, from 2005 to 2014.

He has been member of the Executive Council of the Italian Society of Neurology and the President of the Italian Society for Parkinson's Disease; he was a member of the Executive Committee on Extrapyramidal Disorders, chaired by Melvin Yahr, and after by Donald Calne, and of the one on Dementia of the World Federation of Neurology and, in 2009, Chairman of the Research Group for Organization and Delivery of Neurological Services;  he has been  elected at the WCN in London Vice-President for Europe of the World Federation of Neurology for the years 2001-2005; also, he has been the President of the European Society for Clinical Neuropharmacology during the years 2000-2008; he is a member of numerous International Scientific Societies, and Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology. He has been also a member of the Editorial Board of international journals of neuroscience and clinical neurology.

He has organized various International Symposia on specific themes of neuroscience; he was the President of the 11th World Congress on Parkinson's Disease that was held for the first time in Italy, Rome, in 1994, and President of the 2^nd World Congress on Neurorehabilitation held in Venice, in 2002, when the World Federation on Neurorehabilitation was founded; also, he has been the Honorary President of the XXV World  Congress of Neurology held in Rome, Italy, in October 2021.

He has published more than 300 papers in various international and national journals and edited ten volumes on specific arguments of neurology; his main scientific interests have always been cerebral metabolism and function especially in degenerative diseases of the nervous system, like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, as well as in cerebrovascular diseases and in neurorehabilitation.

 Assist. prof. Hrvoje Budincevic, MD, PhD, FEAN, FESO  is a neurologist with subspecialisation in intensive care medicine and cerebrovascular diseases. He received MD degree in 2001. He works at the Sveti Duh University Hospital in Zagreb (Croatia) where he is Deputy Head of the Department of neurology and Head of Stroke and Intensive Care Unit.  He finished the residency program in neurology in 2007, and he earned his PhD degree in 2014 with the thesis: Impact of anticoagulant therapy on the outcome in ischemic stroke patients with atrial fibrillation. After postdoctoral fellowship from 2015 to 2018 he became assistant professor of neurology at University of Osijek. During education he earned two subspecialisations: in intensive care medicine (2012) and cerebrovascular diseases (2018). He is consultant neurologist (primarius) from 2018. From 2015 he is a secretary of the International Institute for Brain Health. From 2017. he was elected for the President of the Croatian Stroke Society. In 2017 he became a Fellow of the European Stroke Organisation, where was a member of Social Media Committee and a national delegate for the ESO-EAST project. In 2020 he became a Fellow of the European Academy of Neurology. Last several years he is one of course directors of the Summer Stroke School – Healthy Lifestyle and Prevention of Stroke and Other Brain Impairments in Dubrovnik (Croatia) (www.croatianstrokesociety.org) and a member of the Organizing Committee of the MIND & BRAIN – International Neuropsychiatric Congress in Pula (www.pula-cong.com). His research interest is stroke prevention and treatment. He is an investigator in several scientific and clinical projects. He is a full member of Croatian Academy of Medical Sciences since 2023.