Dr Sabina Brennan (PhD, C.Psychol., PsSI) is a neuroscientist and chartered health psychologist specialising in brain health, resilience, goal-attainment and sustainable high performance. She brings rare clarity to the science of how we think, learn, decide and perform under pressure, translating research into tools that work in real life and real workplaces. Sabina is an award- winning science communicator, a trusted commentator for national and international media and host of the Super Brain Podcast.
She is the author of four Irish Times bestselling books: 100 Days to a Younger Brain, Beating Brain Fog, The Neuroscience of Manifesting and Still Me. Her books and animated films have been translated into multiple languages. A former director of a brain health and dementia research programme at Trinity College Dublin, she has also advised government, parliamentary groups, multinationals and NGOs on brain health, workplace wellbeing, neurodiversity, ageing and brain fog.
Talk Topics Include:
The Second Fire – AI and the Future of the Human Brain
A thought-provoking keynote that reframes AI as more than transformation or productivity – it’s a neuroplasticity event reshaping the human brain and, with it, organisational judgement. The title’s framing comes from the first fire which changed the economics of survival. Harnessing fire to pre- digest food freed up time and energy for cooperation, learning, innovation, planning and long-term thinking. Over millennia, those advantages compounded into a species with an extraordinary capacity for judgement under uncertainty. This thought-provoking talk explores how today’s ‘second fire’ can either strengthen decision quality or quietly erode it through capability drift: thinner mental models, inflated confidence and diffused accountability. Audiences leave with practical principles and simple protocols (including ‘AI second’ moments and proof-of-thinking norms) to design AI- enabled workplaces that become not just faster, but wiser, with a brief, evidence-led lens on attention, overload, stress and sleep as the biological infrastructure of good judgement.
The Brain Advantage – High Performance Starts in the Brian
A science-led high-performance keynote that positions brain health as cognitive performance infrastructure – the foundations of focus, learning, memory, processing speed, emotional regulation and decision quality under pressure. Drawing on the science of neuroplasticity, cognitive reserve and brain maintenance, it shows how modern work can quietly deplete cognitive capacity. This talk then offers a clear, memorable framework (Activities, Attitude and Lifestyle) and practical tools to strengthen attention, resilience and recovery. This talk helps teams and leaders improve clarity, reduce avoidable errors and build sustainable performance rather than short-lived intensity.
Beating Brain Fog, Burnout, and Overwhelm – Cognitive Clarity Under Pressure
A high-performance session on what happens when the brain’s operating system is under strain and how that quietly erodes attention, processing speed, memory, learning and executive function – the cognitive foundations of good judgement and consistent delivery. It helps audiences recognise early warning signs, understand the most common drivers and apply practical strategies to restore clarity and reduce rework and errors. The focus is intentionally broad because ‘brain fog’ is often the workplace label for overload and recovery debt. While relevant to cognitive clarity under pressure, burnout and overwhelm, this talk can also be tailored to explore brain fog through the specific lens of menopause and midlife hormonal transition.
Sleep Well, Stress Less – The Neuroscience of Recovery and Performance
This keynote reframes sleep and stress as performance infrastructure: the biological foundations of judgement, focus, emotional regulation and safe decision-making. Using the sleep–stress cycle and the concept of sleep reactivity, it explains why modern work patterns can lock people into a self- reinforcing loop (more stress less sleep more stress). The talk then provides realistic, evidence-led tools to break the cycle. Audiences leave with a practical playbook for high-demand periods – including rapid downshift techniques, sleep-supportive routines and leader actions that reduce cognitive load and protect recovery across teams.
Your Brain is Built for Change – The Neuroscience of Agility and Adoption
Most change initiatives fail not because people are unwilling, but because change is neurobiologically expensive: it demands attention, effort and uncertainty management while the brain tries to conserve energy through habits and automation. The brain thrives on change but paradoxically resists it in favour of the safer status quo. This keynote translates the neuroscience of patterns into a practical framework for organisational change: why behaviour defaults back under pressure, how to build new routines that stick and how leaders can design environments that make adoption easier. It’s a high-performance session focused on execution – reducing friction, shortening the dip in capability during change and creating sustainable, repeatable behavioural shift.