For the past 15 years, groups from around the world have collaborated to promote Brain Awareness Week in March (14-20), a global campaign to increase public awareness about the progress of brain research. Here's some interesting highlights from brain researchers around the globe:

1. The Army has developed a blood test to detect traumatic brain injury (TBI).

2. Increasing your cognitive reserve appears to greatly reduce your risk of developing dementia.

3. Taking Omega-3s may help athletes prevent brain injury.

4. Kids who are neglected or abused or around parents who are depressed produce extra cortisol, which is damaging to their brains.

5. Pregnant women who took folic acid AND iron had children with higher reasoning skills, stronger cognitive abilities, better motor skills and enhanced inhibitory control.

6. The main ingredient in turmeric (which is used to make curry) is thought to dramatically help fight and even reverse the symptoms of traumatic brain injury and stroke.

7. Children born to mothers living near a freeway have double the risk of autism due to the effects of pollutants on the brain.

8. Brain training was shown to help prevent, slow and treat Alzheimer’s and mild cognitive impairment.

9. Researchers believe that eating apples (which contain phloretin) may fight Alzheimer’s.

10. People who speak at least two languages appear to have a huge delay (as many as five years) in the onset of symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

11. Text messaging after bedtime might add to ADHD in teens.

12. Becoming a mom may cause your brain to grow via an increase in gray matter.

13. Walking six to nine miles each week might actually stop age-related memory decline later in life.

14. One in five siblings (thought to be unaffected by the autism gene) of kids with autism experienced language delays or speech problems early in life.

15. Kids drinking tap water with the highest concentrations of manganese had an IQ that measured SIX POINTS below children with little or no manganese in their water supply.

16. Vitamin D-3 is believed to help your brain function, especially with memory and thinking. Take a supplement (1,000 mg/day); your body produces FOUR TIMES more Vitamin D from the sun when you’re 20 compared to age 70.

17. Although “brain training” video games do not appear to improve mental fitness in any significant way, the opposite is true of one-on-one personalized brain training. In one study, adults aged 20 to 80 who went through personalized cognitive skills training had an IQ jump of 11.4 points.

18. Adults who are obese by middle age are 30 to 50 percent more likely to develop dementia later in life.

19. According to Dr. Oz, taking just one 162-milligram aspirin (or two baby aspirin) daily reduces buildup in the brain and helps prevent mini-strokes.

20. Researchers suggest that there’s a strong link between ADHD and PFCs. PFCs are chemicals found in everyday items like food packaging, Teflon products and stain-resistant coatings (like Scotchguard products).

To learn more about Brain Awareness Week, visit the Dana Foundation at www.dana.org/brainweek/.