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SALT LAKE CITY — Graham Embleton, an 11-year-old from Roosevelt, cautiously cupped a human brain in his hands Saturday.
He stared as Amanda Berbert, a University of Utah medical student, showed him where the spinal cord connected to the brain.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience to hold a human brain,” said Sarah Redmon, a University of Utah neuroscience graduate student who helped oversee this year’s Brain Awareness Week event at The Leonardo on Saturday.
Brain Awareness Week is part of a global campaign aimed at educating parents and kids about brain health and science, and to perhaps inspire budding scientists, said Tiffanie Dahl, University of Utah neuroscience graduate student who teamed up with Redmon to organize the event.
“It’s just so interesting to see what makes us work,” Dahl said.
Meanwhile, Graham’s 14-year-old brother, Spencer, strained to move a ball with his thoughts. Electrodes were taped to Spencer’s forehead for brain ball, a game that challenged him to either relax or concentrate his mind to push or pull a silver orb across a table. The game demonstrated neuroscience technology used for prosthetic limbs, said Daniel McDonnall, with the medical device company Ripple.
Spencer also donned drunk goggles to experience the effects of alcohol on his brain, learned about different animal brains, and looked at fluorescent-brained fish under a microscope.
“My kids are fascinated by biology and science, and so this pushes their knowledge,” said Graham and Spencer’s mother, Kendra Embleton. “I love that it’s so hands-on and that they can actually get answers from experts, because I don’t know all the answers.”
My kids are fascinated by biology and science, and so this pushes their knowledge. I love that it's so hands-on and that they can actually get answers from experts, because I don't know all the answers.
–Kendra Embleton, mother
Undergraduate, graduate and medical students from the University of Utah and BYU hosted interactive activities to educate the public during the free event, which was sponsored by the Brain Institute and University of Utah and supported by the Dana Foundation and Ripple.
In addition to holding the event at the museum, volunteers made presentations to more than 2,000 schoolchildren at a handful of schools in the Salt Lake City area last week to educate about brain health by showing how brains are damaged by injury or illness. The presentations stressed the important role that healthy habits — such as wearing helmets and avoiding drugs — play in brain health.
Berbert showed Embleton and her children a brain that was blackened from dried blood clots, which she said were probably caused by an impact to the head, a stroke or a burst aneurism that most likely caused the patient's death.
Redmon said engaging children in hands-on activities better shows them how their actions now can impact them as adults.
"Let's say you ride your bike unsafely and you get a concussion," Redmon said. "That's brain damage. That's going to last until you're an adult, so you have to start taking care of your brain early."
Spencer, who cringed when he held one of the brains, said the event’s activities provided him with even more interest in science, a greater appreciation for his own brain, and a better understanding of why he should wear a helmet when he rides his bike.
“I don’t know if I would touch brains all day,” he said, “but I think neuroscience is really cool.” Email: kmckellar@deseretnews.com
