World Brain Awareness Week event held at BRI

Brain Awareness Week is the global campaign to increase public awareness of the progress and benefits of brain research. BRI staged the event, "Let's examine the human brain and mind" in March 26, 2019. Having welcomed around 57 attendees from high schools and universities across Niigata, the lab tours and talks carried out by BRI scientists attracted the students who came to learn about neuroscience.

BRI director, Prof Hiroyuki Nawa gave a speech first, followed by the lab tours split into seven groups for the students to take part in and watch. Some laboratories allowed students to try out microsurgery or to observe brain tissue clearing and neural network under the guidance of lab staff. That has made these lab visits all the more real and exciting for the students who enthusiastically and actively participated.

After the lab tours, BRI professors gave lectures entitled "The boundaries between reality and delusion in brain: neuroscience of hallucinations" (Prof Nawa) and "The mechanism of memory" (Prof Osamu Onodera, Dept of Neurology).

The aim of the event was to increase students' interest and understanding of neuroscience. We hope they can see research as one of their career paths.

(Click to enlarge images.)