Many young visitors were interested in touching the thick protective layer covering the brain known as the dura mater.
Curious New York City schoolchildren who attended the Seventh Annual Brain Awareness Fair in Guggenheim Pavilion on Tuesday, March 12, asked hundreds of questions of Mount Sinai clinicians, scientists, and staff. “With Alzheimer’s, the brain just shrinks?” asked one 14-year-old as he touched human tissue from a normal brain and compared it to the smaller brain displaying Alzheimer’s disease. The Fair was one of several events commemorating Brain Awareness Week in March hosted by The Friedman Brain Institute, the Center for Excellence in Youth Education, and Mentoring in Neuroscience Discovery at Sinai, which joined the Dana Foundation in its global efforts to increase public awareness of the progress and benefits of brain research.
The participants were also able to look into a microscope and see a neuron, test their hand and eye coordination, and understand how a neurosurgeon works, among many other activities. Nine-year old Lubaina Parvaz, who has attended several of these events, concluded: “I get to learn something new every year.”