THE opening of an £8.3m scientific institute today will put the North-East in the forefront of research into the human brain.

It is hoped that the institute will help to develop new treatments for neurological diseases, such as strokes, brain injuries, dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Malcolm Young, professor of psychology at Newcastle University, said his team of psychologists and neurologists aimed to get a better understanding of the way the brain works by using advanced scanning and computer technology.

Speaking before the official opening ceremony, Prof Young said: "Millions of people are condemned to terrible suffering and to premature death through a very wide variety of neurological and psychiatric brain disorders. These are some of the most feared conditions in the world because effective treatments do not exist."

The institute, which brings together top scientists and modern facilities, "may be able to shed new light on disorders which have puzzled the medical profession, such as autism, dyslexia and a range of brain diseases which stop one or more of the five senses from working properly".

The institute, housed in the glass-fronted Henry Wellcome Building, next to Newcastle University Medical School, is pioneering a new branch of science, known as visual neuroecology, because it puts the emphasis on the study of vision, the most complex and important of the human senses.

By investigating how vision shapes behaviour and how the brain processes signals from the eyes, the team will gain insights into how the brain works and why it sometimes malfunctions.

Funded from the Joint Infrastructure Fund, set up by the Government and the leading medical charity, the Wellcome Trust, the institute is equipped with a super-computer and one of the world's most powerful magnetic resonance imaging scanners which can "read" people's brainwaves in more detail than ever before.