Next week is international Brain Awareness Week and we couldn’t let this pass without some hands-on brain investigation in the Museum. Like last year, we have teamed up with University of Oxford neuroscientists to bring you five days of family friendly activities, games and interactive experiments.
Researchers from the University will be presenting a series of interactive demonstrations suitable for everyone aged six and over. Visualize your own speech sounds, and learn how our ears and brains process them. See how functional imaging provides a window into the working of the brain; and have a go at using your brainwaves to move an object! This and much more to test, intrigue and indeed unlock the secrets of your brain.
Unlocking the Brain is running daily, 12-5pm, from Tuesday 11 to Friday 14 March, and again on Sunday 16 March, 2-5pm (on Saturday we have the exciting Crystals Day too).
Left and right brain: myths and reality
On Thursday 13 March at 7pm, Professor Dorothy Bishop from the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford will present a free lecture at the Museum looking at the role of the brain’s two hemispheres.
It’s common to hear claims that you can “train the right side of your brain” or that the left side of the brain is analytic and the right side intuitive. But how do scientists study the function of the two sides of the brain to test such claims, and do people vary in how the two sides of the brain are organised? If so, does it matter? Come along to find out…