BRAIN EXPO 2009 STATION DESCRIPTIONS

Friday, April 24 -- Invitation Only

Sparky! The Giant Neuron
Explore inside our 6-foot soma and 35-foot axon to learn about neuron anatomy, action potentials, and neurotransmission. Spill out into the synapse for a game of ‘synaptic tag’.

Volunteers need to learn about neuron anatomy, ions and ion channels, action potential formation and propagation, neurotransmitters, transmitter degradation, and reuptake. Communication and practice with station leaders is required.

Primate Playground
Playgrounds enrich the lives and well-being of humans and other primates, such as the gorillas, chimpanzees, and drills at Zoo Atlanta. Use games and foraging challenges to consider how environmental enrichment improves behavior and enhances brain complexity.

Volunteers need to learn about enrichment techniques at Zoo Atlanta, effects of enrichment on behavior in zoo animals, effects of enrichment on brains of experimental animals (e.g. rats and mice), neurogenesis, and dendritic spines. Communication and practice with station leaders is required.

Conditioning U.
Pavlov did it with his dog. Can you behaviorally condition each other? Experience classical conditioning and learn about its applications in current neuroscience research.

Volunteers need to learn about classical conditioning procedures, Ivan Pavlov’s research, learning and memory in Aplysia, and eye-blink conditioning in rabbits. Communication and practice with station leaders is required.

Dunking Under the Influence
Alcohol disrupts normal functions such as vision, coordination, and cognition. Using visual distortion goggles, simulate the sensory-motor deficits associated with alcohol intoxication, and consider the dangers of drunk driving.

Volunteers need to learn about alcohol pharmacology and pharmacokinetics and alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents. Communication and practice with station leaders is required.

Horrifying Hulk
The Hulk gets angry. Consider the natural stimuli for anger and aggression in animals, the underlying brain mechanisms and neurochemicals, and how they are amplified by androgenic anabolic steroid abuse.

Volunteers need to learn about Hulk, The Movie, aggression circuits and transmitters in experimental animals, and androgenic steroid mechanisms of action. Communication and practice with station leaders is required.

Seeing is…Believing?
Can you see your own blind spot? Can you find subliminal messages in movies? Can you see separate gels in cartoons? Check out human eye anatomy and visual system physiology to learn why you probably answered ‘no’!

Volunteers need to learn about eye and retina anatomy, visual system circuitry in the human brain, thalmotropes, and speed of visual processing.

You be the M.D.
Non-invasive brain imaging techniques provide amazing insight on complex brain function, as well as increasingly reliable diagnostics for brain damage and cognitive dysfunction. ‘You be the M.D.’ encourages visitors to use brain images and patient complaints to diagnose traumatic brain injury.

Volunteers need to learn about the physics of brain imaging, general human brain anatomy and function, diagnostic procedures, and leading causes of brain injury.

Touch-A-Brain
With a real human brain to provide first-hand information about the shape and form of the human brain, visitors explore human brain anatomy and compare it with brain anatomy from other vertebrate brain models. Evolutionary considerations included.

Volunteers need to learn about general human brain anatomy and function, comparative brain anatomy, and handling preserved animal tissue.