Brain Awareness Week 2019

Members of the Hellenic Society for Neuroscience (HSfN) organized the following events for Brain Awareness Week 2019.

      In Athens, Members of the Hellenic Society for Neurosciences participated in two events at the Athens Science Festival that took place at Technopolis in Gazi from 3-9 April 2019: http://www.athens-science-festival.gr/en/. At the first event, neuroscientists, psychiatrists and pharmacologists talked to ~30 high school students about Addiction, based on a book they wrote for the general public. The second event was a “Science Café” regarding the “Neurobiology of Creativity” where Prof. Elias Kouvelas, Emeritus Professor at the University of Patras and founding member of the society, gave a talk with the youngest member of our society, Sofia Krokida, a medical student of the University of Athens. At the event there was translation in sign language for deaf students.

         In Patras, students of  High  schools  (20 th  Junior High School of Patras, General Lyceum  of  Lala, ileia, 2nd   General Lyceum  of Preveza, Epirus, 1st  General Lyceum  of Amaliada, ileia, Junior High School of Goumero, ileia, Junior High School of Goumero, 4th  Junior High School of Pyrgos, etc, for a total of 500 high school students ) visited the laboratory of Human and Animal Physiology at the University of Patras,. This visit was organized by Prof. Marigoula Margarity and  included a presentation on the basics of how our brain works and observation of brain sections at the microscope . Dr. Margarity still accepts students at the Laboratory of Human and Animal Physiology, Dept. Biology, in the context of the activity “the schools go to the University ”  introducing the topic “ Brain… The Director of our life. The main event, entitled “ BRAIN. So Small …. so Great ”, held at the Conference and Culture Center of the University of Patras on March 31st, 2019, included oral  presentations, mini theatrical and musical performances presented by the  students of 11 schools on various subjects concerning the human brain. A total of 450 people attended the event.

    In Nafpaktos, the event organized by Prof. Spyros Efthimiopoulos took place was entitled “Emotions and mate choice” and included presentations by high school students and Prof. Marieta Papadatou-Pastou.

    In Ioannina, Dr. Foteini Delis, visited Valaneio Grade School and gave interactive presentations to 50 primary school students on the following topics: 1) Where is the brain and how does it look like? 2) What does the brain do? 3)How should we protect the brain? And 3) What’s it made of?

      In Heraklio, Crete, Prof. Kyriaki Sidiropoulou and the members of the Neurophysiology and Behavior Laboratory visited the 37th primary school of Heraklion as well as the High school in Malia, where 120 primary school students and 30 high school students participated, respectively . Dr. Sidiropoulou gave a presentation entitled “Learning about the brain”, while Ph.D., M.A. and undergraduate students demonstrated behavioural tasks used to study the brain, brain anatomy using brain models, imaging brain slices under a microscope and making a ‘brain-hat’. Furthermore, in collaboration with the Museum of Medicine of Crete the event entitled “Development of the adolescent brain” was organized with the participation of about 150 high school students. The events included presentations about the specifics of brain function during adolescence by several of HSfN members (Profs. Ioannis Charalampopoulos, Ioannis Zaganis, Kyriaki Sidiropoulou, Marigoula Margarity) and interactive activities with Prof. Margarity and members of the Neurophysiology and Behavior Lab.

      In Rethymnon, Crete, the event “The Brain and the organization of behaviour” took place on Wednesday13/03/19 at Xenia Hall. The aim of the event was to inform the public about the multidisciplinary field of Neurosciences and the relationship between drug addiction and the brain.  Stella Giakoumaki, George Panagis and Andreas Kastellakispresented the current knowledge on drug addiction processes and interacted with the participants, which included the Scouts of Western Crete.

          In Thessaloniki, two events took place: 1) The tender side of oxytocin and 2) Brain and gender: mutual dependencies. The first event was a one-day in depth presentation of the peripheral and central nervous system actions of the neuro-hormone oxytocin. Almost 80 students of the Art School of Thessaloniki attended the event, which included a talk by Prof. Anastasia Tsingotjidou on “The tender side of oxytocin” and a video presentation entitled “Tender Morality”, which was produced by the artist Stavros Panagiotakis. The second event included a presentation by Prof. G. Papadopoulos, entitled “Brain and gender: mutual dependencies”. The event was attended by about 200 university students.