Crystal Garret, 3, left, and Joe McCauley, 7, have their hands full of sheep brains during this year's Brain Blast!, held at the Adventure Science Center last Saturday.
photo by Dana Johnson
Will Terry, 11, and Avery Martin, 9, respond to touching a cow's eyeball at the Brain Blast! last Saturday. Participants spent the afternoon participating in activities to learn about how their brains look and working with Vanderbilt neuroscience undergraduates, graduate students and faculty.
photo by Dana Johnson
Paul McDonald, a neuroscience graduate student, talks with Alex McMillan at an activity called "Seeing Through Touch," where children had to tell what was in the box using touch instead of their sight.
photo by Dana Johnson
Brain Awareness, sponsored by the Vanderbilt Brain Institute, takes place throughout March and aims to teach the public about the importance of brain research to understanding, treating and ultimately curing brain-related diseases.
March 15 — The Growing Brain — Michael Meaney, Ph.D., McGill University, “Genes, Parents and Brain Development,” 7-8 p.m., Adventure Science Center.
March 30 — Brain Awareness Keynote Address: The Shape of Minds to Come — Michael Merzenich, Ph.D., University of California, San Francisco, “Brain Plasticity Contributing to Human Impairment and to Neurologically Corrective Rehabilitation,” 4-5 p.m., 103 Wilson Hall.
March 31 — Family Ties in Brain Disorders — Susan E. Folstein, M.D., The Johns Hopkins University, “Autism and Families: Genes and Environment,” 4-5 p.m., 241 MRL Building, Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development.
All Brain Awareness events are open to the public. For more information, contact the Vanderbilt Brain Institute: 936-2637, brain.institute@vanderbilt.edu or visit the Web site http://braininstitute.vanderbilt.edu.