Dr Sarah McKay

a. A two-week intensive online course in Applied Neuroscience & Brain Health. 8th-19th June or 17th-28th August, 2026 ICF & NBHWC CE accredited. a.A practical introduction to applied neuroscience and brain health for professionals The Brain Coach Bootcamp is an intensive two-week online training in applied neuroscience and brain health for professionals working in coaching, therapy, leadership an…

This week, I was stopped in my tracks (well, to be honest, it stopped my scroll!) by a finding about babies’ brains and Alzheimer’s disease. It turns out, healthy newborns appear to begin life with surprisingly high levels of the same toxic protein buildup linked to Alzheimer’s, only for those levels to fall rapidly in early infancy. Maybe one clue about brain ageing might eventually come from st…

Practical neuroscience training for coaches, therapists & educators The Neuroscience Academy brings professional development and training in applied neuroscience and brain health to a global audience. - Designed for leaders, coaches, therapists, educators, mental health and wellbeing practitioners. - Students work towards a certificate in Applied Neuroscience and Brain Health, equivalent to 40 ho…

It’s easy to talk about midlife or menopausal brain fog as if there must be one clear cause and one clear fix, but the brain rarely works that way. Hormones, sleep disruption, autonomic nervous system activation, energy metabolism, mood, and attention may all interact. If you’d like a quick explanation of how I’m thinking about all these puzzle pieces, you can see my latest Instagram post here. A…

a. Online training in women’s neurobiology and brain health: From biology to biography to brain plasticity! Next 5-day trainings: 4th-8th May and 27th-31st July 2026. Deepen your expertise in women's brain health and neurobiology. IHH is a continuing professional development training created for coaches, therapists, educators, mental health and well-being practitioners who work with girls and wom…

This week, I spoke at an International Women’s Day event about women’s brain health. I began by pointing out that women have been in neuroscience for generations. More than half of my undergraduate neuroscience class were women. But we haven’t always been inside the data. We’ve run labs, taught students and published research for decades. Yet our own biology, from puberty to pregnancy to menopaus…

If you follow me on social media, you’ll see I’ve been proudly part of a new global campaign to raise awareness of the word matrescence and get it added to the dictionary. The process of becoming a mother was coined as matrescence back in the ‘70s. Like adolescence, matrescence describes the social, psychological, and neurological transition into a new life stage: motherhood. But type “matrescenc…

This week, I was once again caught up in a news storm over the latest misleading headlines following work was published in Psychological Medicine. While some headlines were claiming “menopause shrinks women’s brains”, I was asked if the research was junk science (neither is the case). As always with TV news appearances, my thoughts were cut to a super short soundbite, which I expand on in this In…

10 bite-sized lessons in brain health, delivered daily to your inbox in simple, practical language. My sense is that everyone is too busy and burned out for extensive (and expensive) courses. This free micro-training in applied neuroscience is quick, entertaining, and packed with valuable insights. Over ten tiny email-based lessons, you’ll learn the following neuroscience concepts: - The interpla…

This year, I’ve shared 43 editions of my neuroscience and women’s brain health micro-briefings with you all. These updates, carefully curated by my talented PhD neuroscience team (lead by Lily at Pitch Science), identify science news stories, break down complex research into simple, actionable takeaways (proudly AI-free!). We’ve covered a range of topics, from aging and dementia to mental health …

e. We bring neuroscience and coaching together. Our next NCN intake commences 14th September 2026. Professional training in applied neuroscience for coaching and leadership. - Created for new, experienced and certified coaches with a genuine interest in exploring how to apply brain science to their practice: Build something real! - Designed to encourage conversations and collaboration between the…

a. An on-demand course in applied neuroscience for professionals in human behaviour, mental health & wellbeing. Comprehensive & up-to-date curriculum. a. Study online at your own pace from anywhere in the world. On-demand access to The Neuroscience Academy online content, including: 17 lecture-based lessons + summary notes + worksheets + hand-picked resource library. Comprehensive and up-to-date …

Sign up for email micro-briefings in women’s brain health and neuroscience ➡️ Get Email Briefings 🧬 🄧🄧 Why are women more vulnerable to some neurological conditions, like Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis? Well, a new study in mice has identified a gene on the X chromosome that enhances brain inflammation. As women have two X chromosomes, compared to men who only have one, it’s theorised…

Sign up for weekly email micro-briefings in women’s brain health and neuroscience: Get Briefings 🌏 Yes. Women’s health has been ignored for too long, but I’m an optimist and I see that tide is finally turning, with serious funding flowing in. One example is the Wellcome Leap Foundation’s CARE (Cutting Alzheimer’s Risk through Endocrinology) initiative, led by neuroscientist Lisa Mosconi. CARE is …

This is the complete list of references cited in the fully updated and revised second edition of The Women’s Brain Book (2025). We’re gradually adding hyperlinks where available for further reading and exploration. For those interested in learning more, we offer a professional development training course in women’s brain health and neurobiology across the lifespan, based on the book. Learn more h…

Imagine this: thinking about exercise strengthens your muscles, even if you don’t move an inch. Mental imagery not only activates the same brain regions as the actual movement but also can speed up the learning of a new skill. Mental imagery and sports performance Mental imagery, mental practice, or visualisation is a technique that has been used by sports psychologists for years to improve athle…

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The age-old ‘Nature versus Nurture’ debate is alive and kicking in the world of pregnancy and parenting. Nature, nurture, or the patriarchy? Is the intuitive ability to nurture infants written into the female genome? Or is maternal instinct a patriarchal myth designed to keep women locked in the home? Is oxytocin (literally, the hormone which… The post Nature, nurture or maternal instinct? appear…

Paying attention to the statistics A few years ago, I was invited to speak to a group of teenagers who had been brought together to create innovative road safety solutions for their peers. The statistics they were grappling with were: They considered the problem in light of the following sobering statistics (data from the Queensland… The post The myth of multi-tasking. appeared first on Dr Sarah …

The age-old nature versus nurture debate is alive and kicking in the world of pregnancy and parenting. Is parenting hardwired or learned? Instinctive or experiential? Biological or cultural? Guided by Mother Nature or the patriarchy? The real story of matrescence probably lies in the glorious mess in the middle. The Bottom-Up, Outside-In, Top-Down Model There’s… The post Motherhood: hardwired or …