390 http://neurology.thelancet.com Vol 6 May 2007

Let’s talk about brains: International Brain Awareness WeekProviding a forum in which neuroscientists and neurologists can explain their research to the public, and in which lay people can indulge their interest in the brain, is no pipe dream. It’s here and now in the shape of International Brain Awareness Week. Adrian Burton reports.

March 12–18, 2007 (or around those dates) saw the 10th edition of International Brain Awareness Week, an annual, worldwide event that gives researchers and clinicians the opportunity to make their work at the bench or bedside known through demonstrations, displays, open days, lectures, forums, and many other types of gathering—events that give the public the opportunity to learn about the brain and to fi nd out what’s new in neuroscience.

Organised by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives (New York) and the European Dana Alliance for the Brain (EDAB; London and Lausanne), the theme of this year’s week—which involved 69 countries all over the globe—was Neuroscience in Society: What Does Brain Research Mean to You? In a world where many people have neurological problems, from dementia, to stroke, to spinal injury, the answer is surely “very much”.

“Brain Awareness Week is an annual celebration of the excitement and

promise of neuroscience. Its aim is to ensure that the plans and dreams of neuroscientists are communicated to the general public”, says Colin Blakemore, vice-chairman of EDAB. “127 million people in Europe are aff ected by brain disease, so neuroscience research really matters”, adds Eleanor Barrie, Brain Awareness Week Coordinator (EDAB, London). “But Brain Awareness Week is also a time for people to indulge their fascination with the brain.”

Participation is open to anyone who wants to do anything they believe will help the public become more aware of brain research and its clinical benefi ts. Every year, research institutes, hospitals, patient advocacy groups, and other interested parties put on a range of events and activities. As the Dana Alliance literature says: “all that’s needed is a desire to advance public awareness about the critical research that is revealing the brain’s deepest mysteries and helping to conquer its most feared diseases”. An open day at

a neuroscience laboratory, lectures on Alzheimer’s disease at the town hall, a photomontage in the mall explaining how stem cells may one day rewire degenerated nervous systems, a play that explains the causes of a mental illness—the range of possibilities is as wide as neuroscience itself. For example, the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CGR) in Barcelona, Spain, in cooperation with the city government and other sponsors, this year organised a series of free events on a whole range of neuroscience subjects from how memory works, to the anatomy of fear and the evolution of language, through to the molecular functioning of the brain—and nearly always with large helpings of public participation. In addition, Barcelona’s neuroscientists took their subject to the grass roots, visiting schools to perform demonstrations and experiments.

“We tried to show how the brain works in fun ways while maintaining absolute scientifi c rigour”, explains the city’s event coordinator Mara Dierssen, a research group leader at the CGR. “In one event we asked people to keep to certain musical rhythms and then, using MRI scans of musicians’ brains taken while they were actually playing, we showed the events that were happening in our volunteers’ heads. In another we showed how the deprivation of one sensorial channel aff ects what we perceive with the others. The underlying theme was to show the public that we all benefi t from neuroscience research, but it also helps us researchers remember that the public is the fi nal user of the discoveries we make. It’s never a bad thing to keep that in mind.”

Many diff erent events around the world found other ways to involve Local leaders open a symposium run by the Little Flower Medical Research Centre, Kerala, India

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the public. In the Netherlands, the FC Donders Center of Cognitive Imaging (University of Nijmegen) showed a series of horror fi lm clips—with a volunteer watching the scenes online from inside an MRI scanner. The recorded brain activity was projected at the same time as the fi lm, while scientists explained what was going on inside the volunteer’s head. In India, nursing students at the Shanker’s Hospital in Kollam, a 400-bed semi-rural care centre, presented a public symposium on brain anatomy, physiology, and diseases of the nervous system, as well as a lecture for patients and their relatives, and a quiz competition on the brain for middle-school students. In Iran, the Family Research Institute/Tehran-Oxford Neurodevelopmental Center took a very diff erent route, providing information to the public on how the brain works, as well as on brain disease and injury, by disseminating information via a Tehran newspaper.

In Maraciabo, Venezuela, the Zulia University’s neuroscience laboratory ran an educational health forum for schoolchildren, explaining how to take care of one’s mental faculties and so improve learning. Schoolchildren were also the audience of neuroscientists all over the USA, with over 130 hospitals, research centres, and other facilities providing forums, laboratory visits, and special school-based programmes around the country. And in Bristol in the UK, over 40 scientists made use of the At-Bristol science centre to provide hands-on activities all day and every day for a week—including building model brains and setting up tactile illusions to confuse visitors’ brains into thinking their noses were as stretchable as Pinocchio’s. “This event helps to bridge the gap between scientists and society”, says Lorraine Coghill, Learning Manager at At-Bristol. “There can be a huge chasm between real science and what individuals are being exposed to and

understand; this is especially so for subjects like brain science.”

The large At-Bristol event received funding from the National Lottery—a luxury for many would-be participants. However, in an eff ort to help those without suffi cient fi nancial backing, the Dana Foundation this year approved a grant of US$30 000 to the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) for the funding of 31 projects associated with the week. Applicants from 19 European countries (as well as Israel) competed to receive funding for the public programming of their ideas.

“FENS received an astonishing range of ideas”, explains its president, Richard Morris. “They ranged from organising a lecture in a countryside location where people don’t normally get to hear about the brain, through to requests for the funding of exhibitions in major cities, with one wanting to do a series of simple experiments and demonstrations in every primary school in a particular region. It was a somewhat agonising decision

choosing the best, but we settled on having several judges scoring the applications independently.”

“Science cannot be something that only scientists do”, explains Javier S Burgos, Director of Drug Discovery at Neuron Biopharma SA, Granada, Spain. “Science is part of our culture, and it’s important for scientists to include the public; after all, society is the fi nal benefi ciary of our work. For example, in the western world where the population is ageing and neurological problems such as Alzheimer’s disease are becoming ever more prevalent, the public needs to be aware of what neuroscientists are doing to try to combat this—and we need to show that research is vital and working for all our good. Events such as Brain Awareness Week can play a vital role in this.”

If your brain wasn’t very aware this year and you missed the opportunity to make your work become more widely known, fret not: you can join in next year (March 10–16, 2008). You’ll even fi nd the organisers willing to help. Details about how to participate can be found on the US and European Dana websites. For details on possible funding, the FENS website should be visited.

Adrian Burtonadrianburton1@yahoo.es

What goes on inside your head when you listen to music? Brain Awareness Week in Barcelona

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“Science cannot be something that only scientists do. Science is part of our culture, and it’s important for scientists to include the public”

For the US Dana website see http://www.dana.org/brainweek

For the European Dana website see http://www.dana.org/edab/welcome_en.cfm

For the FENS website see http://fens.mdc-berlin.de/contact.html