Museum marks Brain Awareness Week

Neuroscientists from the Oxford Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute are holding brain-related activities for all visitors aged six and over on Tuesday 12, Wednesday 13, Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 March. Brain Awareness Week runs from 11 to 17 March.

Visitors to the museum can experience current research in a series of interactive demonstrations to see their own brain activity and investigate the links between sleep, health and diet.

An exhibition called ‘Revealing the Brain’ has been put together with Oxford’s Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics and the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences. Professor Russell Foster, expert in circadian rhythms that govern our waking and sleeping patterns, will give a public lecture on Thursday 14 March at 7pm.

Professor Zoltán Molnár from the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, said: 'The exhibition gives a flavour of Oxford neuroscience since the time of Thomas Willis in the 17th century  and Nobel Prize winner Sir Charles Sherrington in the 20th century, right through to the latest discoveries made today by leading groups at University of Oxford.'

For people who cannot attend any of this week’s events, the Museum’s Entrance Gallery will display brain-related artefacts, including brain models and special knives for cutting sections of the brain, until 2 June 2013.