For Brain Week RI, students and faculty are bringing brain science to local high schools, planning the annual Brain Fair, and more.
Did you know that there are more connections between neurons in one human being than there are galaxies in the universe?
That is Alastair Tulloch’s favorite brain fact. Tulloch is a doctoral candidate studying neuroscience at Brown—and through the annual Brain Week Rhode Island celebration, he has worked for the past four years to make brain science insights like that one accessible to people across the state.
On an early March morning, he stands in front of David Upegui’s Advanced Placement biology class at Central Falls High School showing students a plasticized human brain—the brain from an individual who donated their body to science, treated such that each nook and cranny is hardened into safe-to-touch plastic.
This classroom visit is one of 14 planned at local schools—a few were canceled due to winter weather—by Brown neuroscience graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and medical students in the two weeks preceding Brain Week RI.
The week, which aims to make brain research fun, educational, and accessible to everyone, runs through the Brown Brain Fair on Sunday, March 17. It is organized by the Providence-based national advocacy organization Cure Alliance for Mental Illness, and is sponsored by the Carney Institute for Brain Science at Brown and the Ryan Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rhode Island.
Continue reading here. Find the full schedule of Brain Week RI events here.
