Events, activities set to highlight Brain Awareness Month
“Brain Blast,” a free family fun day of hands-on activities led by Vanderbilt neuroscientists at Nashville's Adventure Science Center, will highlight the annual Brain Awareness Month in March.
Sponsored by the Vanderbilt Brain Institute and the Middle Tennessee chapter of the Society for Neuroscience, the events are designed to raise awareness about the importance of supporting brain research.
Here is a listing of this year's events:
Tuesday, March 3 — “Neuronal Basis of Tactile Categorization,” lecture by Matthew Diamond, Ph.D., director of the Tactile Perception and Learning Laboratory at the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy, 4:30 pm., 1220 MRB III.
Saturday, March 7, Brain Blast! Family Fun, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Adventure Science Center, 800 Fort Negley Blvd. Brain Blast is free and open to the public, but there is a fee to visit other areas of the museum.
Wednesday, March 11 — “Are Mental Illnesses Disorders of the Brain?” lecture by Stephan Heckers, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Vanderbilt, 7 p.m. at the Adventure Science Center. Exhibits will be open for children.
Wednesday, March 25 — “The Neurobiology of Recollection,” lecture by Howard Eichenbaum, Ph.D., director of the Center for Memory and Brain at Boston University School of Medicine, 4:10 p.m., 1220 MRB III.
Thursday, March 26 — “Pediatric Anxiety: Current and Future Approaches to Therapeutics,” lecture by Daniel Pine, M.D., chief, Section on Development and Affective Neuroscience, National Institute of Mental Health, 4:10 p.m., 241 MRL Building, Vanderbilt Kennedy Center.
For more information, visit the Brain Institute's Web site at http://braininstitute.vanderbilt.edu, or contact Steve Edminster at steven.j.edminster@vanderbilt.edu or 322-3532.