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Welcome to the Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter.
In this issue:
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Neuroscience for Kids had several new additions in February including:
A. February Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter was archived
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/news2502.html
B. New Neuroscience in the News
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/inthenews.html
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The Neuroscience for Kids "Site of the Month" for March is "Simply Neuroscience" at: https://www.simplyneuroscience.org/
"Simply Neuroscience" is a student-led organization founded by Chinmayi Balusu, an undergraduate student at Columbia University. Chinmayi and other members of Simply Neuroscience created the web site to help students pursue their interests in neuroscience and psychology.
The Simply Neuroscience web site is filled with materials you can use at home or in school. Start at the "Resources" tab where you will find lesson plans and study guides. You will also find information about an online course and workshops. Head over to the "Events" tab to learn about programs such as the International Youth BrainSTEM Conference and Simply Neurocon event that took place last year. The "Podcast" tab lists several series to listen to, but it does not appear that any shows have been produced yet. These podcasts should be very interesting and I look forward to listening to them when they are available.
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The 2021 NEUROSCIENCE FOR KIDS DRAWING CONTEST is now complete and the winners have been notified. You can see the award-winning entries here:
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/contest21.html
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Brain Awareness Week (BAW) is this month! I hope you will participate at your own school or in your neighborhood. For more information about BAW, visit the Dana Foundation web site at:
https://www.brainawareness.org/
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Written by Caitlin Shirts (Neuroscience for Kids Guest Writer)
Surprise is your brain's way to point out mistakes. All the time, you're guessing or predicting what will happen next. When you walk into a room, and you think it's a kitchen, you expect to see a stove. If you see a bed instead, you feel surprise. Surprise shows you're wrong, so you can get it right the next time. Neuroscientist James Antony and his research team wanted to study how surprise works. They noticed that sports fans predict who will win a game by the score and the players. If a turnover changes who might win, fans are surprised.Antony asked basketball fans to lie down with their heads in an fMRI machine. The machine detects where the brain is busy. While in the fMRI machine, the fans watched the last five minutes of March Madness games. Antony watched the fans' brains and eyes.
Here's what Antony found. Let's say you're watching a March Madness game. Your favorite team is losing. Then -- surprise! -- the star player makes a three-pointer, and your team takes the lead. As the ball goes in the net, your pupils get bigger. Inside your brain, an area called the nucleus accumbens is busy. There, a chemical called dopamine, which is part of the brain's reward system, is working. Your nucleus accumbens gets you excited when your team pulls ahead. At the same time, dopamine is working in another part of your brain called the ventral tegmental area (VTA). In the VTA, dopamine acts when something unexpected happens -- whether or not it helps your team. This could be why a game full of big surprises is fun even if your team loses.
Reference: Antony, J. W., Hartshorne, T. H., Pomeroy, K., Gureckis, T. M., Hasson, U., McDougle, S. D., & Norman, K. A. (2021). Behavioral, physiological, and neural signatures of surprise during naturalistic sports viewing. Neuron, 109(2), 377-390.e7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2020.10.029
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A. The cover story of the March 2021 issue of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND is "Beating Pandemic Fatigue."
B. "Blind Mind's Eye" in AMERICAN SCIENTIST (March-April, 2021).
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A. Dendrites are not just associated with neurons. The shape of some snow crystals gives rise to a form of ice crystals called stellar dendrites.
B. The Australian Reptile Park (Somersby, Australia) is asking adults to catch funnel web spiders and to bring their catch to the park to be milked to make antivenom. The venom in funnel web spiders is neurotoxic, but there have been no human deaths caused by a funnel web spider bite since the introduction of an antivenom about 40 years ago. (Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FE7y2XxZZI)
C. Bats, dolphins, whales, some oilbirds, swiftlets, shrews, and tenrecs use echolocation to navigate and/or find food.
D. Volunteer scientists, artists and embroiderers have worked on the Cajal Embroidery Project to sew panels depicting the work of neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal (Source: Mehta et al., The Cajal Embroidery Project: celebrating neuroscience, The Lancet Neurology, 19:979, 2020; also see the project web site at: https://www.edinburghneuroscience.ed.ac.uk/cajal-embroidery-project-2020).
E. In January 2021, musician Dr. Dre was hospitalized after suffering a brain aneurysm. He was treated in a Los Angeles hospital and then returned home to recuperate.
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to the Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter, send e-mail to Dr. Eric H.
Chudler at: chudler@u.washington.edu
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Your comments and suggestions about this newsletter and the "Neuroscience for Kids" web site are always welcome. If there are any special topics that you would like to see on the web site, just let me know.
Eric
Eric H. Chudler, Ph.D.