Electric Brain

VALENTINA DAMONTE; NICOLAS DE FRANCESCO; EMILIO ROMÁN MUSTAFA; FRANCINA AGOSTI; EDUARDO JAVIER LÓPEZ SOTO; SILVIA RODRIGUEZ; AGUSTINA CABRAL; GUADALUPE GARCÍA ROMERO; VICTORIA FRASA; MARIO PERELLÓ; JÉSICA RAINGO

Congreso; Sociedad Argentina de Neurociencias. XXIX Annual Meeting.; 2014

Here we shortly describe the activities performed at the first BAW that took place at La Plata City, at the Natural Science Museum, organized by members of the Neurophysiology and Electrophysiology Labs of the IMBICE. We structured the activities as a circuit with four stations plus a central area where younger children could draw, paint neurons and make brain hats. The first station consisted in a dynamic introductive talk about the brain and neuroscience plus the possibility of looking and touching real brains from different species. The second station offered the possibility to look at small brains (from a frog and a cockroach) and brain pieces under a magnifier, and watch neurons in brain slices with a microscope. The third station was aimed at showing neurons in action: we recorded the electrical activity from a cockroach leg?s sensitive neurons and stimulated motor neurons with electrical signals from different sources. The last station was aimed at demonstrating how fast neurons work by giving interactive talks about how the electrical signals in the brain and spinal cord give account for the reaction time our body has, and then by performing different measurements of reaction times and reflexes. At times, in the central area, we also carried out a representation of neurotransmission using a giant neuron made of recycled material. We estimate that more than 600 people with a very wide range of ages and previous knowledge about biology and neuroscience visited the BAW.